My New Roommate
by Kapootya
Summary: A mistake on a lease has caused a doctor and a lawyer to become roommates. Unfortunately neither of them want to live with the other and this is the story of how they try to make eachother's lives miserable for an apartment. Itachi/Sakura. Who will last?
1. I'm sure you two can find a compromise

Finally…after thirty grueling hours of driving a rented moving truck across three states, she arrived in front of her new apartment building. The modern 50-story newly-renovated glass building was located in the center of Konoha Square which housed some of best apartment complexes in the world. To even get on the waiting list here, you had to be rich and famous AND important or know the rich, famous, and important people. Her method was somewhere between the two choices.

Her mother-like mentor and world renowned surgeon, Tsunade, happened to know the man who had a monopoly on the Glass-House buildings. The man, nicknamed dirt-bag pervert, Jiraiya would do anything Tsunade asked as long as he could grovel at her humungous breasts without being pummeled. Her blonde mentor told her that all it took was a skanky red dress and a bottle of wine to get the old man to agree to rent the next available apartment to her student. Of course, the surgeon forgot to mention to the mountain of blackmail she had against Jiraiya due to them growing up together. The white haired man stood no chance.

Lo-and-behold, five and a half months later she received a call from said dirt-bag, changed to something prostitute-worthy, and caught the first flight to sign the documents after her double shift at the hospital. Now she was the proud owner of the top floor apartment – 50B. It was state of the art, with a remote that controlled everything, and since it took up a corner of the building it only had a solid wall on the side of the hallway, the other walls and ceiling were complete glass. It was said to be a stainless missile proof glass that was more reliable than cemented walls. Either way – the pictures that Sakura had seen made it look like a modern-day castle in the sky.

She smiled as she brushed her pink hair out of her eyes and maneuvered her truck toward the private parking section and towards the entrance that was marked, "Move in/Move out". To her surprise there was another Moving vehicle located there. Most people didn't move out unless it was by death and from what Tsunade told her – there was an apartment available every seven, maybe six years. The previous owner of 50B, a psycho politician, finally croaked and took his suffocation-sex lovin' a bit too far. Sakura was happy on all accounts of the old bastard's death; anyone who still believed in segregation deserved some sort of tabloid mocking end.

She parked her truck next to the other bright blue truck that was being unloaded. After checking herself in the rear view mirror, making sure that she looked decent, she got out and glanced at her neighbor. She didn't get star struck often but if it was someone like…the model Gaara or the race car driver Neji…she sure as hell wanted to get a peek. To her slight disappointment the man who was unloading in the back was neither and she didn't recognize him from any magazine or newspaper article.

He caught her checking him out and turned to look at her, she gave him a polite smile and said hello. He replied with a nod, and she quickly unlocked the back of her truck in embarrassment. Maybe he was a foreigner. He was surrounded by uniformed delivery men who were unloading the large items, evidently the boxes marked fragile – he made it his own responsibility to carry those.

She gave him another look under lashes – tall, dark, and handsome…obviously. He wore an expensive collared shirt and jeans that fit so perfectly that they probably cost the G.D.P of a small nation. He had long black hair that was pulled back into a loose pony tail and deep dark memorizing eyes that looked like they could engulf the entire world and still be missing something. His eyes were his most chilling feature; his orbs were like black water…to deep to ever see the bottom.

He glanced at her once more…catching her staring…again…and with a bright red face Sakura quickly grabbed the first box in front of her and made her way through the propped open double doors, past two security guards and towards the elevator. She pressed the button designated for the elevator for floors 40+ with her elbow and waited a few seconds for the ding of the opened doors.

She entered quickly and when she was about to pull out her apartment card another card swiped the doors closed. She looked up – it was Mister Mystery Man.

"So, hi, are you moving in too?" she asked trying to force a smile, maybe she should have dressed better. His Armani shirt and unpronounceable jeans really made her Harvard sweatshirt and plaid short shorts look flea-market bought in comparison.

"Yes," he said, "You should swipe your card as well," he reminded her as he leaned back slightly, appraising her figure from his peripheral vision. She obeyed and fumbled to swipe her card across the glass monitor.

He knew how hard it was to get an apartment here…and how almost impossibly rare it was to get two people moving in on the same day. Plus she didn't look like one of the average multi-billionaires that called this complex home. He hadn't noticed any movers with her and she was dress…sub par to say the least. He doubted she even went to Harvard.

On the other hand, her bright pink hair and well endowed figure certainly could indicate cosmetic and plastic surgery. He declared it impossible for anyone to have such a great behind without the assistance of gravity deifying body modification. She was probably the mistress of some important figure or a spoiled trust fund child.

He watched the floors flash across the top of the board…the elevator seemed to be approaching the 50th floor rather rapidly. The chances of her moving in on the same floor as him were astronomically slim since the top floor only had two apartments.

But apparently math or God felt like they were going to against all odds that day.

The elevator stopped at the 50th floor with a ding, and the girl with bright sea-green eyes glanced up at him and he nodded for her to exit first. He was a gentleman after all, when it suited his best interest, anyway.

She stepped out and glanced left and right, blocking his way, and then turned to the right. He followed.

That ass was definitely sculpted by an artist.

Then she suddenly stopped and when he pealed his eyes off her rear, he saw her walk into his apartment.

"What the –" she began looking around.

"It's rude to enter someone else's place without an invitation or permission," the dark haired man said stepping around the younger woman.

"I could say the same for you," she shot back in a defying tone that Itachi was unused to hearing outside the courtroom, "this is 50B, this is my apartment."

"Yes this is 50B," he began placing his box down beside the others that were accumulating at the side, "but this is my apartment. Signed and registered to Uchihla Itachi."

"I'm sorry, this must be some mistake," she didn't sound the least bit sorry as she placed the box in front of her feet and flashed her keycard at him. Sure enough it said 50B.

"The incompetent land owner must have made a mistake," Itachi replied logically.

"I am so not in the mood for this," she growled brushing her bangs out of her eyes, "almost a 30 hour drive here….no food…no sleep, and now this, ugh."

He really didn't care for her problems, "I'm sure this will get this straightened out," Itachi said in a tone that stated that he would make sure that it would get straightened out the way he wanted it. He moved around her and made his way out into the hallway.

"I'm coming with you!" she said ignoring her box that she left inside the apartment and followed him back towards the elevator.

It opened and they stepped aside to allow Itachi's movers to carry a large hand-carved bookshelf made of exotic wood with a parnian finish past them.

"Maybe you shouldn't get all eager to move, they might have made a mistake on your account, you know," the woman offered a semi-half hearted consolidation to Itachi as he swiped his card and pressed the; "Registry Office" button on the see-through screen.

"I highly doubt that," he had reviewed the lease agreement and it was excellent. He expected the buy the apartment by the end of the year. You had to rent for 12 months before being able to purchase it with many restrictions and for an insane price but…money didn't matter. Konoah was the hardest city to find a decent place to live in, especially inside the Square. An apartment that lived up to his standards opened up every half decade or so, and he was not going to pass up this opportunity. Living in his mother-owned Hotels was getting on his nerves.

"Cranky aren't you," he heard her mutter as she folded her arms across her chest, accentuating the size of her breasts two folds.

Breast implants too, he mused, wondering how insecure the girl really was as the elevator dinged open and he stepped out first. He no longer felt like being a gentleman, especially not to someone who claimed rights on his living quarters. Itachi heard her cheap flip flops flop on the marble floor as he approached the registry where a white haired man in an eye patch with his nose inside a book, evidently busying ignoring them.

"Excuse me," he began and looked at the man's name tag, "Kakashi, I'd like to clarify a lease agreement," Itachi said as politely as his monotone voice would allow.

The man glanced up with his droopy eye and nodded, "come," he said with the book still in front of him as he led the couple towards the rosemary double doors marked, "Office". When they entered they were greeted by a huge slim black desk in the center where Jiraiya, dirty-bag pervert, sat writing feverously in a notebook.

"They said there's a lease dispute," Kakashi said motioning them to sit down on the two of the Victoria golden platted overstuffed chairs in front of the desk.

"Sit, sit, let me finish this paragraph…" the man said in a hushed voice.

Sakura looked around, noticing exquisite bookshelves surrounding every inch of the mirror walls and sadly, when she got a closer look she noticed every single one was Ichi-Ichi. Tsunade had told her about Jiraiya's novel writing and had even given her a sample – to say that it was saturated with sexual repression would have been an understatement.

She looked back at the man who finally dropped his pen and turned his attention to his clients.

"Ah! Itachi! So good to see you, and…Sakura, my dear, Tsunade has said such splendid things about you."

"She has only said disreputable and terrible things about you," Sakura replied with a sweet smile. Her mentor had also warned her that if she gave the dirt-bag pervert an inch of niceness, she was going to be the star of his next novel.

"Oh, haha…that Tsunade likes to exaggerate I assure you, but she hadn't said one mean word during our last encounter…I actually wrote a chapter about it, here, let me show you," he began ruffling through the papers on the desk.

"That can wait," Itachi interrupted, highly annoyed at the inefficiency of the old man, "I'd like to see my lease agreement."

"As would I," Sakura added quickly.

"Ah, Kakashi get me out Uchihla Itachi and Haruno Sakura's papers please."

"Mmm," the silver haired man nodded walking towards a filing cabinet, "what apartment number?"

"50B," they both answered at the same time.

"Oh my," Jiraiya began; "now this is an unpleasant coincidence."

"I hope that is all it is," Itachi replied, the underlining threat understood by all those present.

Sakura shot him a glare, even in her terrible and cranky mood she would never be so threatening to anyone. Sure she had a sharp tongue, but she wouldn't dare to belittle anyone like that.

"Ahhhh," Kakashi said rubbing the back of his head as he walked back and handed Jiraiya the documents.

Jiraiya looked it over, the curiosity in his face turning into shock, then fading into a smug look, and then it seemed as though his face was paling into a sea-sick green.

"What is it, are you okay?" Sakura asked concerned as she leaned towards the old man.

"It seems…you are both the co-leasers of 50B."

"What?" Sakura asked in shock.

"How is that possible?" Itachi deadpanned.

"These your signatures?" Jiraiya asked flipping the pages around the placing them between the two soon-to-be-roommates.

"Y-yes," Sakura said, noticing the Itachi Uchihla signature right above hers.

"What is the meaning of this?" Itachi snatched the papers and flipped over the documents to review them himself.

"Kakashi, you oversaw these?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, you told me 50B was to go to Sakura, I called her in and she signed the papers."

"Oh my…that was before Fugako called…Ahem….Erhm, well…" Jiraiya began but was interrupted by the law-expert.

"My signature was here first; I signed it a day prior to her."

"Yes, but she also signed it and my signature was placed after hers."

"Did you not notice someone else's signature on the documents you were signing? Or do you happen to be half blind along with incomprehensibly stupid?" Itachi half snarled with narrow eyes at the pink haired woman. There was a reason why he didn't like most people.

"Excuse you! I was extremely tired when I came in to sign the papers and I hadn't noticed!"

"Pathetic," she heard the man breathe out before turning to the first page and handing it to the landlord.

"I'm sure you two can find a compromise," Jiraiya said looking slightly worried. To get the medical community or the legal community angry at him wasn't on his agenda…ever. With the people Fugaku and Tunsade knew…he would be spending the rest of his life in a cardboard box in the middle of an African desert if he angered either of them.

"Let me get this straight, because mister snotty-ass-rich-boys daddy called, what –" she snatched the papers and looked at the date of the signature, "not even a month ago, he gets the apartment? Jiraiya you had a verbal agreement with Tsunade that I would get the apartment almost half a year ago!"

"Excuse me, little girl," Itachi snarled grabbing the documents from her hands, "watch your mouth."

"You asshole, you better watch yours!"

It was becoming evident to Jiraiya that Sakura inherited Tsunade's temper, and if he knew the blonde woman like he though he did, he was pretty sure the pink haired girl was about to hook Itachi in the jaw any moment.

"Now, now, both you! Let's not behave like children," Jiraiya tried to calm them down when he saw Sakura's fist clench and Itachi's expression change to one that wordlessly chanted, 'I dare you'.

"It's simple, I will pay you," he reverted back to his calm expressionless voice to Sakura while recrossing his legs in an almost royal manner, "for the next twelve months a sum equivalent to the rent and you can go find someplace…more suitable for your living style."

"Are you trying to buy me?" she gasped in shock…no one had ever been so rude to her, her entire life.

"If that makes your meaningless life feel more important than, yes," he countered.

"Oh, I'd love to hurt you right now…" Sakura threatened.

"I dare you," Itachi replied, "It would be my absolute pleasure to send you to jail with a myriad of charges."

"Hah, the President owes me, dear boy. I wouldn't mind using my get out of jail free card to pummel the living crap out of you," she retorted with a smugness that matched his.

Itachi's eyes only widened slightly from her revelation. That had to be a bluff. Just who was this girl?

"Come on; please…how about you split the apartment. One week his, one week yours?" Jiraiya asked trying to think of a pleasant outcome that would suit both. "Or 6 months hers, six months yours?"

"No," Sakura and Itachi said at the same time but she continued the sentence, "I plan to live there, and if this preppy fuck-tart plans to live there too…so be it. I bet he's such a sheltered little boy, he'll be crying to mummy by next week, isn't that right?" she asked mockingly as she stood up, "if you gentlemen and bastard excuse me, I have to go continue unpacking in _my_ apartment," she said getting up slowly and walking out of the office with her head held high.

"Itachi…please understand that it was –"

"There is no need for an explanation, it seems that I cannot take any legal action at this time…I will remove her from the apartment by my own means."

"Legally I hope," Kakashi added flipping a page of his book.

"Hn," Itachi replied standing up and walking out.

"You know…this would make a good plot for a book, wouldn't it?"

"Mmm hmmm," Kakashi replied to his boss.

.

...

.

Sakura was already on the phone with Tsunade before the elevator even opened. She stepped inside as she continued to explain what happened.

"And then this jackass excuse of a human being that I'd love to tear a new one to completely ignored any form of compromise and and and," Sakura tried to stop the oncoming sob, as the elevator went down to the basement.

"Calm down, I'll get my lawyers to look at the documents, but if you both signed it before the landlord did…then it's a legal document," Tsunade replied calmly and Sakura could hear the clanging of Sake cups in the background.

"But – "

"No buts, Sakura you are the most stubborn, pig-headed, and creative person I know…use what you have to get rid of the bastard, I owe Fugaku a good deck in the face for investigating my pediatrics department a few years ago anyway."

"Fugaku?"

"Preppy-boy's daddy."

"I knew it…" Sakura muttered, wiping away her wet cheeks with the back of her sleeve and tried to steady her breathing.

"Now…use what you have to make the boy's life a living hell, call me back later because I just got a page for a Code Orange."

"Okay," Sakura replied trying to hold back a sniffle, "thanks for listening to me, Tsunade."

"Don't mention it, remember violence is a nice form of revenge…but you can make revenge much sweeter with a little more planning."

"Are you referring to what you did to the old Nara man?"

"And has he ever back talked to me since?"

"I think he pees in his pants a little when I even mention your name."

"Haha…If you declare war against someone, be the wise player, and if shit hits the fan in Konoha, you're always welcome back home. Your lab coat is still hanging near mine."

"Thank you so much, I'll do my best," Sakura assured her mentor as she cleared the tear residue in on her cheeks with the heel of her palm.

"I know you will, ugh, I have to go Ino is yelling something about a collapsed lung and an airborne infection, be good, dear."

"Bye," Sakura said hanging up. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to smile. Everything was going to be okay. Everything _had_ to be okay.

The doors dinged open and she stepped out. She was going to do her best, and first on the agenda was stealing his moving men. As she walked down the hallway, she stripped off her sweatshirt to reveal a white tank top that accentuated the bright pink bra underneath.

She was definitely going to do her best.

.

...

.

As Itachi approached the elevator, his phone rang disturbing him from his seething thoughts of the stupid plastic girl that had caused him such agony.

"Hey Itachi! Dude get your ass over here!" his older cousin, Shisui, nearly shouted on the other line.

"Why?" Itachi asked clicking on the elevator button and waited impatiently.

"New evidence in the Mu'gui case, something about a bloody gun. I'm heading down to the precinct to talk to the detectives now, I need you man, the court dates in a week."

Getting rid of that wretched excuse of a human being would have to wait. He hung up on his cousin and called his chauffeur to meet him in front of the building. His moving men could take care of the rest of his furniture.

.

...

.

Sakura grinned as she swayed her hips in appreciation at the movers who were carrying up her cabinets that held all her medical reports and research notes. She had pulled down her top to reveal extra cleavage, rolled up her shorts, and behaved like a horny little slut.

She normally had much more self respect, and was usually the most well behaved girl out of any bunch, but honestly – sometimes being a little naughty was just the better option. She had gotten all the movers to stop unloading Itachi's truck and unload hers instead. Yet to her grim dissatisfaction the jackass never came down to bare witness and wasn't in the apartment either.

She internally hoped he had given up as she pushed all his boxes out into the hallway. He had so many god damn textbooks that it was sickening. She had given up picking up the boxes that had books and resorted to kicking them out.

* * *

This story is already typed out and finished, so expect continuous updates. :)

Please leave comments to let me know if you're enjoying it ^^


	2. The bastard was going to suffer

By evening, Sakura had unpacked half her stuff, with her only furniture being a coffee table, two file-cabinets, and one bookshelf along with a small mat to sleep on. She had planned to go furniture shopping after getting the vibe of the room down. She was still unsure if she wanted to go traditional, modern, or classical.

The pink haired doctor was making herself tea when the door to her apartment opened to reveal a very grim looking Itachi.

"It's rude to enter someone else's apartment uninvited," she said simply as she poured her tea into the cup.

"What the hell is my stuff doing outside?"

"Why should it be inside?" she countered as she dropped a cube of sugar with a splat.

She could feel him wishing for her painful demise and torturous end as he propped the door open with one of her own textbook boxes and began to carrying his boxes back inside.

She pressed the porcelain cup to her lips as she watched him, trying to hide a wicked smile.

"There is no legal action that can be taken against this current situation and there are no vacant apartments in Konoha Square or within the city limits," he said dropping four large boxes in the living room.

"Mmmm, sucks for you," she said sipped her hot tea.

"No, my dear, it sucks for you," he retorted with a glare, "I suggest you not get mixed into a situation that you cannot handle."

"Oh, I think I'm handling it very well…I do believe that I'm not the one that's moving a truck load of boxes back into the apartment right now…oh wait, I haven't moved more than a box, your movers are exceptionally kind," even if she hid her expression, her tone of voice told it all.

When Itachi came back inside after bringing back a couple dozen boxes, he glared dangerously at her, "I will warn you now, I have no limits – I get what I want."

"Mmmm hmmm," she said sarcastically as though she was entertaining a child's wild imagination.

They didn't speak for the rest of the night till Sakura came out of her shower in her light pink pajamas and walked into the bedroom to find Itachi sitting on a mat on the floor with the computer propped up against his legs.

She looked around – her sleeping mat was missing, his obvious blue one was obnoxiously placed in the middle of the room.

"It's rude to enter a man's room unannounced," he said typing away at the keys.

"Where is my bed?" she asked.

"In the closet in the office, I figured it would be a better place for you."

"Well, you figured wrong," she said storming out the room and dragged her mat back in a few minutes later.

"I am sleeping here," he said glancing up from behind his glasses.

"And I am too."

"An unmarried woman sleeping in the same room as a man, have you no shame?" he teased coldly.

"I'm sorry, you were a man? I was blissfully unaware," she said placing her mat in the far corner by the glass wall that overlooked the bright city.

"Can you come up with anything that is not juvenile?"

"I'm afraid then you wouldn't understand me."

"An excellent defensive mechanism to your own density," he said clicking on something she couldn't see.

"Uh huh," she said waving her hand away as she looked around for her boxes that were in previously set in the bedroom, "moved my boxes too?"

"Who knows," he replied coolly as she walked out and clicked on all the lights in the office, searching for the box she had placed her dagger in.

When she walked back in, with a dagger in her hand, Itachi couldn't help from raising an eyebrow.

"What is that for?"

"I am going to be sleeping in the same room as you, right?" she said kneeling down in front of her bed and placing the weapon under her pillow.

"Girl, I will break you without laying a hand on you, don't worry."

"It's not 'Girl', my name is Sakura, and I am 31 for your information – far past girl-status."

"Must have been grueling."

"What?"

"All the plastic surgery," he said and before Sakura could insult him with a string of colorful curses for his misconception, his phone rang.

"Itachi," he answered.

"No."

"I have the reports."

"I am not going to accept an insanity plea, that's cheap."

"Yes."

Sakura glanced over her shoulder as she listened to the conversation, she had an idea that he was a lawyer but she wasn't sure what kind. She figured corporate suited his jerkish personality best.

"I will be in tomorrow."

"Yes, I've moved – I'm in Konoha Square now."

"Yes, goodbye."

Itachi shut the phone and turned his attention back to his computer as he accessed his email account to find the pictures of a previous case that had never been solved that might tie into his – at least that was what the detectives speculated.

Sakura opened her journal as she lay on her stomach and began to write about what a mean person Itachi was.

When she had finished her six page entry, she glanced up to find Itachi not in the room; she tried to stifle a yawn as she hid her journal under her mat by her legs and flopped back, turning to look out the window. The city looked beautiful from the 50th floor, when she glanced up at the glass ceiling, she could almost see a handful of stars.

There was no way in hell she was going to give up this apartment to that bastard.

.

…

.

Itachi walked into the kitchen and jumped up skillfully onto the dark blue limestone island. With his legs hanging over the edge, he called his favorite contact – the only man that ever gave Itachi a mental challenge and even beat him in a game or five of chess.

"Shikamaru," a lazy voice answered.

"Itachi," Itachi replied, "I need a favor."

"Of course you do, I heard about the new discovery on the court case…man that one's a dozy."

"I'm not worried about that, I need you to look someone up for me."

"Oh? Figured out how to win the case already?"

"Of course."

"Hah, I'll come and watch if the boss doesn't have me chained to the desk. Now," he heard Shikamaru shift his position and his fast hands fly across a keyboard at lightning speeds, "who do you need me to look up?"

"Full report on Haruno Sakura. It's H-a-r-u-n-o."

"I know her, she was just in the papers…she's moving to Konoha Square."

Itachi frowned, Shikamaru should have known better than to suspect Itachi of reading the tabloids.

"I haven't heard of the Haruno name."

"Man, she's like a goddess in the medical field. My sister has read all her biographies, it's disturbing. She spent a few years on a team in France developing this fighting agent against 80 percent of diseases commonly found in third world countries. It's still going through regulatory shit but rumors say it will be legalized within a few months. She's also known for the pink tablet she created with the help of Tsunade, you heard of it?"

"No," Itachi was not amused; apparently the harlot was more of a saint than a sinner.

"It's this tablet that you put in water, again it was designed for third world countries, it neutralizes the water and kills all bacteria and virus that are inside it. I saw a medical documentary on it and it turned brown water crystal clear in seconds. They're currently testing it for side effects but they say it should go through easily. Although, Sakura is best known for her surgery, she's developed eight different techniques that are now standard in all hospitals….she's like a nerd's wet dream. One sec, let me pull up her contract."

Itachi waited patiently. To say that he had greatly underestimated the pink haired girl would be an understatement in itself.

"She has a contract with Konoha hospital starting tomorrow, with unlimited access to all equipment and she gets her own lab and assistant…but she's rejected the assistant. It says that her schedule is only set for surgeries every Friday, Monday, and any other day if it's an extreme case. She has ER duty on Tuesday and does rounds with the interns for two hours on Fridays, otherwise it seems all the other days she can spend in the lab doing whatever she pleases….and….hmmm, it says here that her first proposal is to work on a…damn…cure for melanoma."

"Are you sure we have the same person in mind?" Itachi asked calmly.

"I got her picture up here, pink hair due to a pigment disorder, natural green eyes, five foot two, and about a hundred and three pounds. Age 31. Same girl?"

"Yes."

"Have you met her?"

"Something like that, what is her association with the president?"

"President? Of this country?"

"Yes."

"One sec," Shikamaru replied as his fingers danced across the keyboard as he got inside the FBI listing. A few minutes later the hacker spoke again, "woah, crazy stuff here. Apparently president's twin's got a rare blood disease that was killing them slowly. It says here she had led up a team of scientist and they found the cure after two and a half weeks of straight labor and experiments and then performed surgery involving artery re-mapping. She completely cured both girls of the disease, and…it also says that the surgery she performed took seventeen hours on each girl and is considered one of the hardest surgeries to do without mechanical assistance, which she didn't even have. Damn, this girl's a medical prodigy."

Medical prodigy or not…she had to get out of his apartment.

He was never the type to play well with others.

.

…

.

Sakura moaned as her NCIS theme song played through her alarm clock to wake her up, she slapped it shut and rolled over and slowly tried to open her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that the glass walls and ceiling were darkened, making sure the morning light wasn't seeping through. The second thing she noticed was that Itachi's rudely placed mat was empty with his blanket folded at the foot of it.

Slowly she attempted to get up but then flopped back down.

She really didn't want to get up. She had an appointment at her new hospital at noon, but she set her alarm clock for 6 in the morning out of habit.

Stupid habit.

Her mind quickly went over the pros and cons of staying in bed or getting up. Getting up won.

She kicked her blanket off her and rolled over, the cold marble floor brought goosebumps to her warm skin and her eyes widened. She could have sworn that she had set the floors to medium heat…not ice cold. A polar bear would have caught hypothermia standing in her apartment.

She rolled back onto her bed, and growled; preppy douche-bag must have reset the temperatures, the only thing she was happy about was the fact that at least he kept the windows shaded. Growling a string of curses and wishes of mutilation to a certain inconsiderate someone, she took a deep breath and stood up, ignoring the numbing icy feeling in her feet. She needed to find the apartment remote.

Damn asshole.

She opened the door and walked down the hallway towards the incomprehensibly large open space of the living room. Up on the kitchen platform she saw Itachi in his black business suit, reading the newspaper while on the laptop on some website she wasn't able to make out.

"Good morning jackass," she muttered, noticing that the preppy-ass was wearing slippers.

"Whore," he greeted back as he turned the Konoha paper to the financial section.

The floor seemed to get colder with every single step; she snatched the apartment remote off the corner of the island and increased the temperature to "Medium Floor Heat".

"Cold?" he asked smugly without looking up from the paper.

She restrained herself from throwing the remote at his ugly face.

"I'm not a frigid ice bitch, like you," she replied walking around the island towards the stove where she expected to find her silver kettle. Instead there was a black one, which obviously wasn't hers. She went on her tippy toes as she opened the top black-stone plated cabinets looking for her kettle.

"Why up so early?" he baited her as he placed the newspaper down and turned all his attention to his laptop.

"Work," she snarled closing one door and opening another.

"I thought prostitutes preferred to work at night," he answered as he clicked the laptop pad.

"Har-har," she replied sarcastically, "where the hell is my tea-pot?"

"I did some house cleaning," he responded.

The desire to murder rose, that was her favorite kettle, its whistle was perfect right between loud enough to hear across the room and soft enough not to annoy. She grabbed one of his mugs and a tea packet from the table.

"It's rude to use other people's property without permission," he said closing his laptop while she poured the hot water into the mug.

"I am finding your existence extremely rude," Sakura countered as she lolled the teabag up and down and he placed his laptop into his business bag.

"Hn," he flashed her one of the cruelest smirks she had ever witnessed before walking off the kitchen platform, through the unfurnished living room and towards the door. He slid his slippers off and put on his Italian leather shoes, not bothering to give his roommate another look as he left.

"Bastard," she muttered as she took a sip of the tea. It tasted strange, and she took a big gulp while trying to discern the flavor. She carefully thumbed the tea paper at the end of the string.

Jasmine.

She raised an eyebrow as she took another large gulp trying to find the jasmine flavor in the tea and it tasted a bit too spicy to be jasmine. After a careful sip and a smack of her lips, her mouth began to sting. She sniffed the tea carefully and her mouth and throat began to burn.

She placed the mug down and inhaled deeply but that only increased the fire-like sensation inside her mouth. She quickly opened the fridge to try to find milk or ketchup, but instead was met with a plastic bag with bright red and green peppers on the top shelve.

Her eyes narrowed in realization, the asshole had boiled the hot peppers in the teapot.

"Fuck," she breathed out but it hurt even more, she turned on the cold water on the kitchen fossett and grabbed an empty cup and used it to help her gargle out the taste.

After five cups of gargling, spitting, and uncontrollable tearing, the burning sensation slightly subsided. She went into the master bathroom and grabbed the dark green Listerine bottle and began to wash her mouth out with it. She couldn't even taste it's normally too-minty flavor in her burning mouth.

That bastard was going to pay.

She went to shower, hoping a nice hot shower would calm her. It didn't. Her mood worsened even more when she had to spend over an hour searching through her boxes for her undergarments. In the end, she changed her into light brown cargo pants and a simple red blouse – at least going commando kept all unsightly panty lines away.

She tried to keep herself from taking deep breathes, her mouth still burned, as she checked the time; 3 hours until she had to be in for work, so she put on her red converse sneakers and walked outside. She was going to go get a large sweet muffin and bottle of milk to neutralize the effects on the capsicum-based spice the Prince of Darkness put in her drink.

Sakura was thinking over petty pranks she could play on him as she stepped out of the elevator and walked through the beautiful gold platted high ceiling lobby. She admired the 17th – 19th century paintings and Greek and modern sculptures, her anger slowly began dissipating from the beauty of the art. She had no skills in drawing or painting, but she knew how to appreciate and admire its aesthetic perfection.

"Good day, madam Haruno, will you be needing a taxi?" the doorman asked her as he opened the door for her.

"No, thank you," she glanced at his nametag, "Jon, have a good day."

"You too, madam, stay safe."

She nodded as she stepped out and fell in line behind a couple of chattering business women. She couldn't help on eavesdropping on the two fake-tanned blonde females.

"I wonder why it happened?"

"I think it's a prank."

"A prank? I doubt it, I mean its Konoha, I think it's an artistic statement."

"Bras and panties scattered all over the city is hardly an artistic statement."

"Is so! It says something, sex sells."

She stopped paying attention to the girls when she noticed her favorite cherry-blossom motif bra hanging on the windshield of a car. Then she saw her zebra-striped thong being stepped on by some fat man.

Her good-luck blue lace panties were hanging off a walk sign and her lime green glow in the dark rave bra hung off a Stop sign. She had no doubt they were hers…they were signed by Bon Jovi!

Her anger multiplied to unimaginable levels as she continued to see her delicates scattered all over the world's most popular square. It was going to be on the news for crying out loud! Tsunade was definitely going to see it on the television, and she could only imagine Naruto walking out of his dojo and seeing her bunny print panties hanging off his "Welcome" sign.

Right on cue…her phone rang.

She inhaled sharply, trying to calm her anger – the torturous burning in her mouth had nothing on her explosive temper.

"Hello," she growled.

"Oh my god, that is your underwear!" her best friend, Ino shouted into her phone, "It's all over MTV!"

"Fuck, did Tsunade see?" Sakura wanted to cry.

"Everyone in the hospital saw, Tenten from Suna called me…she remembered us purchasing those handcuff panties during the bachelorette party. She thought they were mine…but of course I told her I was still working in Slug Hospital."

"Did you tell her I was in Konoha?"

"It slipped," she lied.

"God," Sakura muttered.

"What happened? Wild night?"

"I have a psycho for a roommate."

"Found your long lost twin?" Ino countered with a chuckle.

"No, Itachi Uchihla if that means jack shit to you."

"Woah, bullshit. The Itachi Uchihla!"

"Yes," Sakura hissed.

"That's Sasuke's brother!"

"Naruto's boyfriend?"

"Mmm hmm!"

"I don't think I liked him much either," Sakura said hating every single person who was related to Itachi.

"You didn't like anyone while you were in medical school; I think we stopped being friends about thirteen times."

"Ino…I don't need this, I need to kick the bastard out of my apartment."

"Wait – you're living with Itachi! You were being serious? What the hell!"

"I'm not living with him because I want to!" Sakura shouted causing nearly ten people turned to glance judgmentally at her but she flipped them all off and continued talking in a lowered tone, "there was a document mix up and both of our names are on the lease."

"Do…Do you not have a clue who the hottie known as Itachi is?"

"He's every single villain who ever lived in both reality and the world of fiction. He is the disfigured character of –"

"Sakura! He's a knight, a prince charming!"

"Wha-what?"

"Well…technically, he was knighted by the Queen a few years ago. He's been on like a billion magazine covers. He used to be this hotshot detective in Suna and then Kiri, like think James Bond mixed with Sherlock Homes."

"Stop exaggerating…"

"I am not! He is like…the perfect guy, he moved back to Konoha a few months ago working as a lawyer. The dude's like…a crime solving stud and rumor has it he'll be the next D.A. His dad is the Prime Minister of some other country, I don't remember but the dudes a hottie too and his mum is this crazy international lawyer who owns a chain of hotels. Her name's Mikoto and she's, like, pretty much responsible for globalization."

"Ugh, Ino…I don't care about the idiots who birthed him…I just desperately want to kill and maim him, he's a fucking jackass."

"Bullshit! I read all his interviews! He's like the biggest heartthrob on the planet! He's so sweet!"

The pinkhaired doctor couldn't take it anymore. She had to make it a rule for any nice words about Itachi to never be spoken in her presence.

"I have to go, Ino, I'll call you later," Sakura said snapping her phone shut while trying to calm her twitching eye.

Ohhhh, she was going to get back at Itachi….the bastard was going to suffer.

* * *

I hope you're enjoying it! :) Reviews make me happy :D *insert heart*


	3. It's never too early for Whiskey

**A/N: **Suspend your expectations for realism...my knowledge of law and medicine are tidbits picked up from the stereotypical Hollywood-stylized shows.

* * *

After preparing her revenge on the snobby bastard that was lacking in common decency, she made her way to Konoha hospital while eating her third tasteless muffin. She believed that almost all her taste-buds were shot and began to doubt if she'd ever be able to enjoy a nice chocolate brownie ever again.

Sakura brushed her hair out of her eyes as she approached the hospital and grimaced when it came into view. It was far from the homey feel of Tsunade's Slug hospital.

Konoha hospital was as advanced and modern as it came, getting constant grants which allowed them to update regularly. When she entered the blindingly white building that smelled of anesthetic from a block away, she was assaulted with hushed whispers of people in the waiting room. Everyone's eyes traveled towards her and she gracefully avoided them by quickly made eye contact with the desk nurse. Her pink hair was a curse sometimes.

Tsunade had informed her that she would be over looked by a doctor named Kabuto for the first few months and that the Dean of Medicine was already aware of Sakura's desire to work alone. The young doctor was friendly, but she was far from a people person when it came to her professional life. She walked towards the long black haired woman behind the registry counter, "hello, I'm –"

"Sakura Haruno," the woman smiled, "I'm sorry, we've all just been really excited to meet you. My name is Gilee, erhm, Kabuto will be here shortly to show you around."

"Nice to meet you Gilee," Sakura smiled warmly back. The revenge she got on Itachi had turned her mood for the better. Revenge tasted sweet and she didn't need actively working taste buds to know that.

After a few moments of small talk with the nurse, a man with light tinted blue hair approached her. He was about a foot taller than her, but had an extremely warm and kind expression on his gentle face that kept him from seeming overbearing. He wasn't intimidating at all and for that, Sakura was grateful. Too many doctors tried to act all high and mighty around her. He offered Sakura a smile as he reached his arm out to shake her hand.

"Sakura, I presume?"

"Mmm hmmm, nice to finally meet you, Kabuto."

"Shall, I show you around? I'm sure you will absolutely adore your laboratory. We just received the last of the specimens you asked for this morning so you can start your research this afternoon, after we make rounds to introduce you to this week's surgery patients, of course."

"I have a brain tumor removal Sunday, right?" Sakura asked as she fell into step beside the man.

He fixed his glasses on his nose as he responded smoothly, "yes brain tumor removal in the morning, and then there is a child flying in from a desert village – she has Wa-Lu disease."

"Oh my," Sakura replied sympathetically as he handed her the print-out version of her schedule for the week.

"If you find anything over whelming we will be more than happy to accommodate you with any changes," Kabuto added quickly as they walked into the elevator.

"No, no – please, I worked during the last great war. There is absolutely nothing I can't handle after that."

"Very well, I'll take you through the departments…we'll start with forensics, alright?"

"Mmm hmm," Sakura smiled warmly as she finished looking over what the rest of her day entailed.

.

…

.

Itachi walked into the police precinct that his current team of detectives were waiting in. Shisui and he were asked to overlook an interrogation, and more often than he'd like to admit, Itachi had stepped in and turned the suspect into a pleading criminal begging for the death penalty – anything to get the demented Uchihla lawyer away from him.

"Hey, Itachi!" his cousin, Shisui with wild black hair that looked like it would break a comb, greeted him with a smile. He had been waiting for Itachi.

"Your tie is crooked," the younger man replied as the elder Uchihla let out a half chuckle.

"I hate suits; I have a stupid court case at 2."

"The embezzlement man?" Itachi asked. Most of Shisui's cases dealt with theft and white collar crimes but since he was dating a detective in the homicide department, he often overstepped his boundaries. The prestige of being an Uchiha meant that both men had more perks than they'd be able to take advantage of.

"Mmm hmm," Shisui said leaning off one of the detective's desks, "shall we?"

"How long has he been in there?"

"Fifty minutes, Iruka and Anko are waiting in the watching room for us."

"Who brought him in?" he asked as they walked past the messy desks towards the interrogating rooms.

"Anko."

"I assume he has a black eye?" Itachi asked. Anko was known for giving every suspect a black eye, and that included an eighty year old Amish grandmother.

"Of course," Shisui said laughing, "and she's threatening to give him more. She's convinced he murdered his own daughter."

"Who's interrogating?"

"Ibiki," Shisui said opening the door for his younger relative.

"Good," Itachi said.

"Hey Shisui and Itachi," Iruka greeted and Anko did a lazy wave from the corner of the room as she licked on her purple Popsicle.

"Hey," Shisui responded moving towards his girlfriend, "hey, there gorgeous."

"Hey pumpkin, ditching work?" Anko greeted back while she sucked on the Popsicle provocatively.

"Anko, don't give him a hard on, he can't win a case when he has blue balls," Itachi deadpanned as he turned his attention to the two way mirror.

Iruka chuckled under his breath as he caught an appreciative sideways glance from the lawyer that had helped bring down criminals who didn't deserve to walk among civilians.

"Soo, grouchy pants," Anko called to Itachi, "when are we having your housewarming party, eh?"

"I have a pest I need to get rid of," he replied smoothly as he watched the criminal twitch and glance left to right anxiously.

"Dude, a roach? In the Glass Buildings? That's –," Shisui began but his lover interrupted.

"Woah, you got an apartment in the Glass Building? Damn, I'm jealous," Anko muttered with a prolonged slurp.

"Shhh," Iruka hushed everyone up as Ibiki entered the room with a stern look on his face that made the man in custody quiver in fear.

Itachi smirked.

"He hasn't asked for a lawyer?"

"Nope," Iruka answered as Ibiki slammed the door.

"Interesting."

After an hour of grueling interrogation by the dark skinned bald headed man, the criminal begged for a lawyer and began to place substantial blame on his wife for all the wrong he "had to" do, yet he refused to name said wrongs.

"Bastard, I should have given him another black eye," Anko muttered as the detectives and lawyers walked out of the observation room.

"Will you take it from here, Itachi?" Iruka asked as he shifted his gun holster slightly to the side.

"Yes, keep grilling him – I'll get a search warrant for his apartment after the hearing and once you find the body, I'll schedule a court case."

"You da man," Anko said and quickly added, "So when are you throwing a house warming party?"

The dark haired girl was never good with nos. "I'm not," Itachi replied grabbing his brief case, "Shisui lets go."

"Have a good day you guys!" Shisui shouted over his shoulder as he grabbed his suit jacket off Anko's seat and followed Itachi out.

"Hey, bro, I need a favor," Shisui said putting on his jacket as they walked out onto the busy streets of Konoha.

"Two favors in one week, did you break a mirror?" Itachi half muttered as he put on his sunglasses.

"No…but Maria is coming in a week to visit and you know how Anko…well, wants to bash her face into a spike rock and all."

"I'm well aware of Anko's feelings towards your sister."

"Listen, we made plans for next week, and I would owe you big time if you went out with Maria."

"You already told her I asked her out."

"To the Opera," Shisui admitted.

"I'd like to cash in one of the favors you owe, right now."

"Consider it done."

"You tell a single soul about this, and I will rip your tongue out with rusty pliers…"

"Woah, secret time?"

"Do you still keep up with real estate laws?"

"Yeap, and if anything my mum's the head-honcho when it comes to that stuff. She's my Sparknotes."

"I need you to look over these documents, tell me if there's any way to make it obsolete and kick the other person out," Itachi said handing him over a packet of papers.

"This is a lease agreement," Shisui said scanning the paper, "this is your lease agreement…this is your and Sakura Haruno's lease agreement. Woah…you lucky bastard."

"Find a loop hole in it; I'm not familiar enough with real estate legalities to be able to dissect it professionally."

"Dude, why would you want to find a loophole, Sakura Haruno…dude, I love the chick."

Itachi glared at his older cousin with narrowed eyes, his over use of the word dude had gotten old real fast.

"Anko and I made a threesome list; Haruno is on Anko's list. I have been trying to track down all the chicks on the list but Temari is busy becoming the richest person in the world and Kurenai is doing movie after movie and, well…Karin's just pathetic, I think Anko just put her on the list so she could wear a strap on and butt eff the girl to death…"

"Who is on your list?" Itachi asked, not even fazed by the insanity of Shisui or his lover.

"You'll have to deposit another favor for that answer."

"I'll pass; I need you to find a way to get rid of the Haruno girl," he reminded his sometimes irresponsible cousin.

"I'll see what I can do, no promises – I haven't been on any real estate cases since Anko shot me."

"Don't let anyone know."

"You have my word."

"Good."

.

…

.

After Itachi's two hour court case, and six minute jury deliberation, he headed to see Judge Hiruzen Sarutobi. On the way he got a phone call from Anko informing him that they got the man to crack and admit to the crimes. Perfect timing.

He entered knocked on Hiruzen's office.

"Come in," the old man muttered and Itachi walked in, "Ahh, Itachi…what can I do for you, dear boy?" the old man asked.

"I need a search warrant. Man has admitted to murdering his child, he is blaming wife. They own four properties on this coast; I'd like to be able to give the detectives clearance to search all."

"Ahhh," the old man rubbed his goatee, "where is his wife?"

"Missing, officials are looking for her, if we discover her inside any of the properties we will be bringing her into custody."

"Hmmm, approved…..now," the judge said shuffling his papers, "how have you been, boy?"

"Fine," Itachi answered handing over the search warrant form.

"You are a good liar… but I'm too old to be lied to."

"I have some troubles at my new apartment," Itachi said honestly – the judge was a walking lie-detector.

"Oh? You have taken my advice and moved to the Square?"

"Yes."

"Where?" he asked signing the document.

"Glass Building in the center of town."

"Very, very nice – what troubles may you be having?"

"I'd like to keep it private."

"My boy, haha," he handed Itachi the signed warrant, "I do not gossip."

"There has been a document mishap; I am currently rooming with another person – Sakura Haruno, she seems to be quit famous, apparently."

"Ahhh, yes I know off her, she's Tsunade's apprentice…a feisty girl that's for sure…" the old man mused.

"Yes, well I'm trying to get rid of her."

"Legally?"

"I have given the lease agreement to Shisui to see if legal action can be taken, but so far…I'm doing so by other means."

"Other means," he chuckled, "be warned, I'm sure Sakura inherited Tsunade's backbone…you may be the one kicked out."

"I doubt it, thank you for the warrant; I have some more work to do."

Hiruzen waved him off, "go, go."

.

…

.

Itachi returned back home well past midnight, and went straight into undressing, showering and changing into his sweat pants to prepare for bed. He knew he should probably look over some documents before going to sleep, but he was too exhausted by the paperwork he had done.

When he entered the bedroom, he saw Sakura already lying in her mat sleeping peacefully by the window. He had expected her to have moved out but it seemed as though the judge was right – she had a backbone, he just had to see if it was made of steel or glass.

.

…

.

Itachi's internal clock had never failed him and everyday he was awake at 5:30 in the morning without the assistance of an alarm clock. The next day wasn't any different, except when he opened his eyes and sat up – the pink haired girl was gone. He raised a suspicious eyebrow; he could have sworn that he hadn't heard her movements and that agitated him. He was a very light sleeper.

Then he stood up – the floor was frozen. Not cold frozen like he had done to her, but ice frozen. When his sleepy eyes adjusted, he saw a sheet of ice across his side of the room. She must have chilled the floor temperature to the lowest degree and then poured water on the floor.

She was creative; he had to give her that much credit. Itachi ignored the cold sensation as he went to place his feet in the comfort of his slippers only to find them gone.

She had just gone from creative to very annoying on his Haruno scale.

"Damn, bitch," he muttered under his breath as he carefully made his way to the door, he had no plans of tripping or slipping.

Thankfully the sheet of ice stopped at the threshold and he made his way towards the kitchen to corner easily, but much to his surprise she wasn't there either. She must have left for work, he deduced as he ran his fingers through his hair, it was for the best anyway. He was not one who enjoyed sharing breakfast with others and with her those breakfast pleasantries would turn into World War Three by lunch.

So he went through his early morning ritual; he brushed his teeth and changed into his basketball shorts, muscle shirt and went downstairs to the 2nd floor where there was a top of the line gym and spa for all Glass Building tenants. After forty-five minutes on the treadmill and twenty-five minutes of stretching, pushups, sit ups, pull ups, weight lunges and squats he returned back into the apartment. Still no sign of Haruno.

Itachi took a shower, then put his hair into a loose pony tail and dried his torso off with a towel while the other hand went to open one of the walk-in closets.

His eyes widened, jaw dropped, and towel fell in one fluid motion.

Every single one of his very _very_ expensive suits and collared shirts that he had brought into the apartment were dyed bright pink with visible bleach spots all over. His rack of silk ties was all cut in half and all his shoes were missing.

The last time his level of anger rose so high was when he was interrogating the mass murderer Mandora back in his detective days.

He quickly attempted calmed himself as he walked back into the bedroom, snatched up his phone and dialed his cousin.

"Ughmhp," was the greeting on the other line.

"You have ten minutes to get here with one of my spare suits, shirts, ties, and shoes," Itachi demanded coldly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Here? Where? Who?" the voice seemed to be muffled into the pillow.

"I will tell Anko about spring break of '91."

"I am on my way!" A loud and awake voice yelled through the line.

Then he called the lobby to inform them of his cousin to be sent right up, and ordered a breakfast cart with two meals of scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, fruit cups, tea, and bottle of whiskey.

It's never too early for whiskey when a psycho bitch ruins over fifty grand worth of clothes.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you for reading, alerting, and favoriting. Special thank you for any comments/reviews you leave...they make me really happy. :)


	4. Coping just fine

The restaurant waiter from the third floor arrived first, and set up the meal on the kitchen island. Itachi tipped him and the man left after asking if there was anything else that Itachi needed. The lawyer resisted asking for a death ray machine.

Shisui walked in eight minutes later, wearing a blue t-shirt and basketball shorts while holding a black suit bag. Itachi looked up from his glass of whiskey and tipped it in his cousin's direction as a greeting.

"Woah, nice place – no furniture?" the older male asked as he kicked off his shoes.

"I suspended the order until I get rid of the girl," Itachi replied standing up and grabbing the suit from Shisui.

"What happened to your suits?"

"This," Itachi said after they walked through the hallway and into the bedroom. He opened the master walk-in closet that he had politely split with Sakura. She, smartly, had removed all her clothes before he could retaliate.

"Holy…fuck."

"Hn," Itachi breathed out as he unzipped the bag and hung up his suit, shirt, and tie. "I ordered breakfast," he stated blandly after he had placed his shoes down.

"Uh huh," Shisui nodded as he followed his cousin, looking over his shoulder again, "I can't believe she did that….I mean if you only asked her to leave…damn, I can't imagine –," realization flashed across his face as he sat on one of the stools in front of the stone island, "you don't get refused…dude, what the hell did you do to her? You had to have done _something_ first."

Itachi ignored the question as he poured his relative some whiskey.

"No way," Shisui continued as his mind went into overdrive, "those were her panties and bras scattered all over the city yesterday, weren't they!"

"I plead the fifth," Itachi replied smugly lifting his cup up to cheers.

"Dude, if I ever did something like that to Anko; I'd be lucky if she only ruined my clothes," Shisui replied clanging his glass.

Itachi didn't bother mentioning the pepper incident or the sheet of ice she created on his side of the room – he would leave a note for the maid to take care of it.

The men ate; Itachi changed the subject to legal matters, angered by both replies from his cousin.

"The contract is completely legal, unless she moves out on her own free will; you're kinda stuck with her. I even ran it by my mum last night, I mean, I blacked off the signatures so she didn't know it was you, but she agreed with me."

Itachi asked narrowed his eyes and looked out the window over the breathtaking view of the city. He sighed inaudibly and then asked about the case they were both working on because any subject that dealt with his current personal predicament riled him up.

"The cops searched all the houses, Anko said that they found dried blood on one of the bedroom curtains– forensics is running it now but it doesn't match the little girl."

"Damnit," Itachi breathed out in frustration, "any sign of the mother?"

"She hasn't turned on her cell phone, used her passport, or credit cards yet."

They ate in silence for a few thoughtful minutes till Itachi asked a question that would turn the case on its head.

"What is her maiden name?"

"Uh – I'm not sure, it should be in her file, I think. She did change her name twice before through previous marriages so her identity is kind of all messed up," Shisui said with a piece of bacon hanging out of his mouth.

Itachi grabbed his cell phone and hit speed dial number three. Shikamaru picked up.

"Itachi, working – the Venezuelans tried to hack into our electric grid an hour ago."

"Favor," Itachi said.

"Shoot."

"Find out Mary Johnson's maiden name, married to Justin Bakerfield who owns the Smart Rite food marts."

The sound of pressed keyboards could be heard on the other line.

"She changed her name twice….through….wait no…three times through marriage. First husband kicked it, second husband divorce, and she's with third husband now." he stated.

"I know, Mary Johnson is her current name….what's her original name?"

"One sec, this areas classified…for some…give me a minute."

Itachi waited patiently; Shikamaru never let him down.

"Woah…nice…She was a C.I.A informant in the eighties. Played the spy game in Iraq…seems as though her last mission was compromised."

"Maiden name?"

"Apparently, she's changed her name _four_ times; her American name-name is Mary Mitchel but before she got that…it was Valintina Gorbovich, her maiden name is….Valintina Gorbovich."

"Slavic, what country is she from?"

"It looks like…Poland – she just used her Polish passport in Vancouver about five hours ago on a direct flight to Warsaw."

"Thank you."

"No problem, stay cool Itachi."

The stoic male hung up, "Valintina Gorbovich is her maiden name. She's Polish, duel citizenship, and just got on a plane to Warsaw from Vancouver."

"Shit, I'll call Anko up now."

.

…

.

Sakura finished tying her hair up into a pony tail as she entered her lab. She had arrived way before the break of dawn because she had a dream about chemical formulas and her old college chemistry teacher. The dream itself made no sense, but when she stirred from it – it revved her up enough to get to the hospital to work on some experiments. She would forfeit seeing Itachi's face when he discovered the state of his clothes but she usually did experiments on gut feelings and her gut was feeling damn good at 4 in the morning.

She began by opening the chemical fridge and taking out a set of six corked test tubes filled with orange liquid and carefully placed it on her white desk. Then she took out a second set of half a dozen corked test tubes that were filled with blue liquid, and another set filled with black liquid. Next, she took a single larger test tube filled with infected blood and a round glass case with infected skin samples.

After she turned on her microscope, LCD screen and put on her safety glasses she began her various experiments to try to neutralize the disease.

.

…

.

Five hours later, Kabuto walked into her lab, when the door swooshed open, Sakura looked over her shoulder and smiled.

"Good morning, I saw you checked in at five in the morning, everything okay?"

"Mmm hmm, I was just inspired," she said as he stood next to her staring at the LCD screen of enlarged cells.

"Find anything interesting?"

"I found two chemicals that were able to completely destroy the disease."

"That's wonderful," Kabuto said as he tried to figure out what was on the screen. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he felt belittled in the situation.

"Yes…too bad its poison to the human body, an ounce of this," Sakura performed air quotes on the next word, "'cure' and the person will bleed out from every pour." She tried to downplay herself so Kabuto wouldn't feel bad for not understanding the science code. She had configured the settings on the computer in a science language that she had invented for herself.

"That…is not wonderful."

"No," she chuckled softly, "it's not. I think I'm going to try out some other combinations – this one seems too dangerous," she said placing the T.V remote down, "is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, I just came to check on you and to see if I can offer you a hand."

"Oh, no thank you Kabuto, I work best alone."

He nodded, "very well, let me know if you need anything."

"I will."

"I'm serious," he stressed.

"Erhm, alright," Sakura tried to offer him a smile. Originally within the contract, Kabuto was supposed to be her assistant but Sakura denied to having one. Unfortunately, when trying to explain to the Board of Med that she couldn't find someone with a compatible way of thinking to work with her….many people misinterpreted what she said to mean that no one was smart enough to work with her.

The female doctor sighed after he left, they had gotten off on such a great start and now she could feel the tension anytime he addressed her.

.

...

.

Sakura came back to the apartment a half hour before midnight. When she entered, the lights were on and Itachi was sitting at the island with files scattered all around his laptop. She kicked off her shoes and walked towards the large kitchen area.

"Hello," she greeted brightly as she placed her fast food meal on the counter next to her messenger bag.

"This is for you," he replied, handing her a piece of paper.

She finished unloading her fries and chicken nuggets onto a plate before accepting it. It was a receipt for fifty-two grand complied by his accountant to include all the clothes she ruined.

"Ahhh, alright," she said sweetly, "this, then," she rummaged through her messenger bag and took out a small receipt and handed it to him. "And one sec….I got another one for you," she reached in and retrieved a medical forum and pen. Quickly she began to fill out the paper.

Itachi grabbed the receipt and his expression remained blank as his eyes scanned its contents.

"La Perla?" he asked.

"For new panties and bras."

"You spent fifteen grand on lingerie?" He asked, not sure if he was conveying surprise or disgust in his voice.

"Mmm hmm," she said signing her name on the forum, then she ripped the top sheet off and slid it across the table towards him. She turned back around and began opening the small ketchup packets to get some sauce on the edge of her plate.

"And why should I care?" Itachi asked sliding the second paper to him.

"Same reason I should care about your suits, and the second receipt is the hospital bill, I am very much allergic to peppers," she lied, "many tests had to be done after they neutralized it out of my system."

"What a surprise that it all adds up to 52 grand…And I suppose you don't have health insurance…" he deadpanned as she turned around with a plateful of artery clogging goodness and sat across from him.

"Mmhph," she replied while she chewed on a crispy fry.

Itachi folded both receipts and then ripped them in half, and then ripped them again, all the while staring at her challengingly.

She met his challenge, by ripping up his own receipt into tiny pieces.

"Guess we're even," she said placing another fry in her mouth.

"Far from," he replied coldly.

"Well, tomorrow the delivery men should be coming – I ordered some furniture for _my_ apartment."

"Where is this apartment of yours located?"

"Right here, silly," she answered grabbing her bag and plate and carefully walked out of the kitchen towards the bedroom.

He was angry…very angry, but a playful smirk had just crept onto his lips unbeknown to him…

.

…

.

Sakura had once more awoken up before Itachi, but this time her movements stirred him and he took note of her waking up at four twenty in the morning.

When it was his time to get up, his roommate had been long gone.

.

…

.

Itachi called Shikamaru after changed and left towards work, making plans to stop by the nearest coffee shop on the way.

"Itachi, I don't think you've ever called me this often, did you catch the Soviet chick?"

"Yes, she's going to be interrogated in a few hours," Itachi said crossing the crowded street.

"Sounds troublesome," he said with a sigh, "what can I do for you?"

No matter how troublesome Itachi would be – Shikamaru would never refuse a favor….Itachi was a reason the hacker was alive, had a job, and wasn't being hunted down by every single governmental agency on the planet.

"Sakura Haruno, give me her financial statement for the last two months."

"Eh, she should file a restraining order against you..." Shikamaru said as he looked up the information for Itachi, "okay she has two debt cards, and two credit cards – one of them is a black card. Let's see, starting in late August, she paid for rent…restaurant….bills…Japanese restaurant…erhm, lots of restaurants...flight to Africa…took out five grand at the airport….then next thing she used a card on was a flight back to America from Costa Rica….but no records of her flying there…then she paid rent…then hotel in Konoha Square…ten grand donation to a children's hospital…investment in animal shelter...two grand shopping in Times Square…down payment on an Glass Building apartment….overseas transaction of thirty grand…to…. an orphanage in Malaysia…jazz club tickets…library donation of ten grand…rented a moving truck…fifteen grand in a store called La Perla…and last major transaction was at a furniture store in Konoha Square."

"Cancel the furniture purchase."

"How?"

"You're the hacker, figure it out…say it was a mistake or identity fraud…just get it canceled."

"Sometimes, I think that I would rather be asked to hack national security than do your evil bidding," Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"You're not the first person to tell me that, now make it happen."

"Yes, sir…"

Itachi hung up the phone and then called Luxury Livings as he crossed the street.

"Thank you for calling Luxury Livings, how may we assist you?"

"It's Itachi Uchihla."

"Mister Uchihla! How can I help you, sir?"

"I'd like the items I placed on hold to be delivered today this afternoon."

"Oh, yes sir, but unfortunately sir we cannot have them delivered until tomorrow."

"Fine."

"They will all be delivered by two tomorrow, and they will be arranged in the manner you previously requested in accordance with the blueprints you provided. Is there anything else we can do for you, sir?"

"No."

"Thank you, sir."

Itachi hung up and called Glass Buildings Secretary to inform him of the delivery men.

.

…

.

As he walked towards his Law office building from Starbucks he received a phone call from a police station outside the state.

"Hello," he picked up as he checked the time on his wrist watch. It was twenty till eight.

"Hey, Itachi," his partner back in his detective days greeted him.

"Kisame, how are you?"

"Like a fish out of water – Got some news for you. They are transferring Madara to a holding facility and then shipping him off to isolation in Akatsuki Island."

Itachi's face turned grim, his partner had promised to keep Itachi updated if there were any changes in Madara's captivity.

"When?"

"In three weeks, he's spending two days under federal watch and then back to isolation. I wish we were able to convict the bastard on the death penalty."

"Hn," Itachi regained his composure, "are you going to be on watch?"

"Night and day…Also there is something else," Kisame began with a sigh and Itachi waited for him to continue as he went through the lobby of his law office building. "When they removed him for a medical examine, they found letters by the hundreds under his bed."

"What type of letters?" Itachi asked as he flashed his I.D past security.

"All addressed to you…they were pretty damn graphic. He really wants you dead, Itachi."

"Likewise…send me the letters." He got onto an empty elevator and pressed the 32nd floor button.

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Send me the letters, my email's the same."

"Listen…I don't –,"

"Send. Them. I may entertain him with a reply."

"Ugh, man, you are still a sadist…Alright, well that's all I have to report. How are things on your end?"

"Fine, one child killer and another mass murderer," Itachi replied calmly as he took a sip of his coffee. The elevator dinged open and he stepped out into the hallway and made his way towards his office.

"Haha, like working on the legal end more so?"

"It's a change, though not carrying a weapon with me at all times is very dissatisfying."

"I can't imagine my life without my Samehada…"

"Still naming your guns?" Itachi asked with a low chuckle…he really missed field work.

"They are like my babies…" Kisame whined on the other line, "gotta go, code double D!"

Itachi hung up and could already see his old partner pinning after a female passerby with big breasts.

.

…

.

Sakura's cell phone rang with the opening theme to House. She looked up from her microscope to try and locate it since it meant that it was Naruto calling. She held back the desire to face palm herself; she forgot to call him after she got settled in. Though, technically – she wasn't going to be settled till Itachi moved the hell out of _her_ apartment.

With a sigh she flipped open her phone.

"Hey!" She answered in an overly faked and happy voice.

"Sakura! What the hell! You promised you'd call…it's been weeks!"

"Days," she replied rolling her eyes.

"Weeks."

"Days."

"Fine…Fine…a week and a day….so too busy for lunch? We need to catch up."

"Never too busy for you," Sakura replied with a smile.

"How about we meet at Lenny's, I am hungry for a sub."

"How about I pick you up, last time you were an hour late and I am not going to be getting pity looks again because you can't tell time."

"Hah, you never forget _annnnything_." She could hear him grimace on the other line, "and sure, that would be great! We renovated the entrance, you'll love it."

"I'm sure I will."

.

…

.

Sakura had known Naurto since sixth grade and they had remained close friends since. Though they weren't in constant contact like she was with Ino, they shared a special type of bond. No matter the distance or time they spent apart, they could always reconnect at the drop of a hat. The summer before his junior year in high school, Naruto went to Italy to participate in an underground martial arts match.

Apparently the wild, immature, and commitment-phobic blonde had found love and never went back to school. Years later, he and his lover would open up various martial arts dojos, run them for a few years, and then sell them. After selling it off they'd go to find a new place to settle in before repeating the process.

He didn't see Sakura again until their mid twenties when she was running away from various government organizations. He, of course, had nothing against harboring a fugitive in one of his many legally and illegally owned estates. Their friendship had always been unconditional.

Sakura double checked the address on the business card for Nine Tails Dojo and turned right on 5th avenue. It was impossible to miss the three story orange and blue painted martial arts studio. She chuckled; Naruto was always good at standing out.

She made her way through the bright neon orange double doors and was shocked to discover that the inside was decorated in a high end Zen fashion. There was no way in hell Naruto even had a say in any of the design. It was too calming.

The floors were a soft smooth gray granite color and the open space they occupied was impossibly large. There were a dozen small paper lamps hanging from the ceiling and the soft meditation music playing the background created a perfectly relaxing atmosphere. In the center of the entranceway there was a simple large marble fountain in the with colorful koi fish swimming at the bottom. The hallway to the right led to the stairs which went up two flights and down to the changing rooms. The left wall acted as a double mirror which allowed for classroom observations. Sakura saw two parents sitting and smiling as they watched their children taking their karate class. She could distinguish a male instructor with dark brown hair demonstrating a hook punch to the group of fifteen small elementary schoolers in cute little karate uniforms.

Sakura smiled to herself as she walked up to the receptionist desk where a male in his early thirties was looking over files behind a large dark gray limestone desk.

"Excuse me, I am –,"

"He'll be right down," the black haired man answered, turning over a paper before writing something down.

The doctor cocked her head to the side; she could see the resemblance between Itachi and him. It wasn't like she and Sasuke were best of friends either.

"Guess it runs in the family, eh?" She asked rhetorically as she folded her arms across her chest.

Finally the man behind the desk looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

"Sakura, I am busy. Naruto had taken a stab at the account books while I was ill," he lifted up a stack of papers, "literally." There were distinct ninja star type holes all over it.

"Naruto's stupidity does not excuse impoliteness."

"Very well," he sighed as he put the papers back down, "How are you enjoying Konoha, Sakura?"

"It's a pleasant change," she replied leaning against the table and smiling, "I like what you guys have done with the place."

"You should have seen the design Naruto wanted."

"Rainbow happy?"

"His sketch looked like an amusement park opening."

"That sounds like Naruto."

"Awwww, what sounds like me?" Naruto asked coming from the hallway. He was wearing a light blue collared shirt with fitted jeans – she assumed Sasuke had dressed him.

"Stupidity," Sasuke responded coldly.

"Eh," the blonde rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah…"

"Come on, Naruto. Sasuke," Sakura turned to the Uchiha, "would you like to join us?"

"No, I am enjoying seething in my anger alone, thank you."

"I'm sorry," Naruto said for what sounded like the hundredth time.

"Well, we'll be going," Sakura began, "have a good one, Sasuke."

Suddenly a blue fuzzy thing came flying at Naruto's face.

"It's cold outside," the dark haired Uchiha muttered as he went back remaking their accounting books.

Naruto's smile grew tenfold as he wrapped the scarf around his neck and waved goodbye to his boyfriend who was pretending to ignore him. He grabbed Sakura's hand, "come on."

.

…

.

"So," Naruto began as he took a sip of his coke, "what's it like living with Itachi?"

"What?" Sakura looked up from the menu in shock, "how…how did you know?"

"Ino."

"That damn bitch," Sakura moaned as she put her hands over her face. She should have known better.

"So...?" Naruto continued to pressed. Sakura looked between the gaps in her fingers.

"It's horrible, a torturous nightmare, a C rated horror flick…or something like that."

"You don't like having a roommate?"

"It's not about roommate or no roommate. Look…it's my apartment, I want it, and I'm going to get it." She answered firmly and then exhaled in exhaustion as she leaned back in her chair, "It's on the 50th floor, Naruto…it's so beautiful."

"So you two haven't had sex yet?"

"Naruto!"

The blonde raised his hands defensively, "I kid, I kid."

"That is not funny. He is a terrible human being."

"Well…Sakura…he's not…soo bad."

"And how would you know that?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sasuke talks about him, he's a good guy."

"Bad guy…he is a bad guy. He is living in my apartment for crying out loud!"

"So…", Naruto glanced at the menu, "the ceasar sub looks good."

The doctor rolled her eyes and smiled before returning her attention to the menu, "yeah, it does, doesn't it?"

.

…

.

"Then I need you to find –," Itachi's phone interrupted his discussion with one of his paralegals. He raised his finger up to pause the conversation and took it out of his pocket and checked the I.D, "get that done for now."

"Yes sir," the man nodded and left with his yellow notepad to the library.

"Sasuke?" Itachi picked up the phone questioningly. His younger brother never called during weekdays, and especially not during working hours.

"Hello, brother," Sasuke greeted back.

Itachi walked down the hall toward his office. "Has something happened?"

"I saw Sakura today."

The older Uchiha's eye twitched.

"You know."

"Naruto doesn't keep secrets," Sasuke replied.

"And how much do you know?"

"Who knows, care to fill me in?"

"No," Itachi replied, "it's all a nuisance. A nuisance that will be taken care of shortly."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Sasuke sighed on the other line, "Just don't do anything too Uchiha like."

"Uchiha-like?"

"You know kidnap her in the middle of the night and drop her off in an abandoned island to die of starvation or dehydration…whichever comes first."

"That was a rumor. Father never did that."

"Yes, of course…the skeleton of the only competition father ever had in an election just ended up on the island by magic."

"Sasuke," Itachi warned. There was a lot more to the story that Sasuke didn't know and Itachi wasn't at liberty to tell.

"Yes, yes. So what is she like?"

"Why are you asking?"

"You've never lived with a girl before; I wonder how you're coping."

"I am _coping_ just fine." He didn't like his younger brother's choice of words.

"Doesn't sound like it."

"Sasuke, I have work to do."

"Hn, of course you do."

"We will talk later," Itachi said before hanging up.

* * *

**A/N:** As always thank you for your kind words and comments - they make me work harder to put out these chapters as soon as possible. This one was totally revamped from what I had originally written. I hope you enjoyed! :)


	5. Going to regret it

After spending a long day in the office going over both cases, Shisui kicked his younger relative out and under the pretenses that they both needed to get some drinks in their system. They had gone into a nearby hotel restaurant and situated themselves by the bar. It was a slow day.

"Don't forget, my sister's coming over in five days," his cousin reminded, "here are the opera tickets," he handed him a white envelope, "be good to her…you know what a huge crush she has on you."

Itachi placed it inside his jacket and was about to respond when Shisui's phone rang. The older male flipped it open.

"Hello, sweet and sexy speaking."

"Shit, for real?"

"Itachi and I will be right there, love you, babe," he said hanging up and turned his attention to Itachi, "six bodies found in the panels of the greenhouse."

"Let's go," Itachi replied getting up.

"Fuck, the bartender hasn't brought my –,"

"Now," Itachi growled as he left money for their ordered drinks. Shisui cursed under his breath as he followed the lawyer out of the hotel bar.

.

…

.

Well into the night, Itachi was with inside the greenhouse of his suspects. Police lights were flashing all over and the street cops had just finished putting the yellow tape around the perimeter. Itachi went to flash his badge but paused – reminded that he wasn't a detective. Shisui showed his I.D and they were permitted to speak with the M.E and go over the preliminary findings. So far it was 6 bodies, all girls, and all had been beat with a blunt object in the head. That was as much as he could tell them

"We will run D.N.A, but it might take a month…maybe more," the M.E said taking off his gloves.

"What? Why?" Iruka asked trying to stifle a yawn.

"There was a building explosion a few hours ago in the outskirts of town – all living bodies were sent to Konoha hospital. Both our forensic departments are swamped with hundreds of samples since they say it might have been a terrorist attack. Everyone is under federal watch. I can get you your results in a three weeks possibly, maybe more."

"I can get the judge to move the court date," Itachi replied, glancing at the rotten skeletons which were being photographed.

"We don't have enough on them to keep them held up in their cell for that long!" Anko shouted, completely frustrated. She never liked letting a bad guy walk lose.

Itachi gritted his teeth as he walked off to the side and flipped his phone and pressed his number nine speed dial.

"Hello?" A soft female voice whispered.

"I need you to run some forensic work for me."

"Itachi, I can't I'm –," – "Hey! No cell phones allowed!" A male voice in the background yelled, "Who are you talking to?"

"It's a friend, just needed –," Itachi heard her try to respond before the phone was snatched away.

"Hello? Who is this?" A man who had obviously believed that he was in charge.

"Itachi Uchiha," Itachi replied, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice.

"I don't care who you are, do not call this number again unless you want to be a prime suspect," The angry man hung up.

"Fuck," Itachi breathed out as he snapped his phone. When it came to terrorism – federal agents were assholes and would probably twirl him around in so much red tape he'd want to find a new profession. If only the idiots could prevent the shit from happening rather than clean it up.

"I told you," the ME said shaking his head from side to side as his assistant came around to give him something to sign.

"What now?" Anko asked with knotted brows.

"I am going to regret this," Itachi muttered so lowly that only Shisui caught the words that he said. There was only one person who the feds would not touch.

He called Shikamaru.

"It-aaa-chhhi," the young hacker picked up on the other line, "do…do you know the time?"

"Redirect my call to Sakura Haruno's cell phone."

"Wha? What? Why?" Shikamaru sighed, "no…don't tell me. I don't care. Ugh, how troublesome."

Less than a minute later, the other line was ringing.

"Hello?" A familiar female voice picked up.

"Are you busy?"

"There was an explosion, ton of patients in the ER who need bandaging up and – wait who is this?"

"You have knowledge on forensics, correct?"

"Oh my god, Itachi? How the hell did you get this number?"

"There are six dead girls, all under the age of ten – the Konoha detective branch needs D.N.A proof to convict two suspects."

Silence met his demand. He could hear the hospital intercom in the background.

"And why are you calling me if this is a police matter?"

"The detective is a friend," Itachi fiddled with the truth. "Will you?" He was getting more annoyed by the second.

"Bring me all the samples the medical examiner provided," she replied with a clenched jaw.

.

…

.

Anko and Shisui had gone home after the M.E had finished his work at the scene and provided all substance materials to be given to their specialist.

5 hours later, Iruka and Itachi watched Sakura work through various test tubes and with different machines that neither understood. She would randomly mutter to herself different things that made no sense to the detective and lawyer.

"Okay, you see that, over there," she pointed at the plasma screen on the right.

"Yes," Iruka said nodding.

"That's pubic hair of a mature male. Running it through the system, now. The M.E's report says there was evidence of forced entry but they were unable to recover any sperm samples. So this is as good as it gets. Now the other samples you gave me…they don't match anyone in the system. No finger prints either. Their bone mass is significantly less than the average child in the metropolitan area."

Sakura moved to the side and walked towards her microscope to replace the slides.

"What does that mean?" Iruka asked as Itachi remained silent. Had it not been for the girl getting mixed up in his living quarters he might have had some respect for her.

"It means that they were farm-born, probably…or born in a third-world country and smuggled here," Sakura replied, "but…look at the other screen." She pressed a button on her remote.

They turned to see two strange patterns side by side.

"That is the D.N.A pattern of the male and female suspect you have in custody, now check this out…" she moved to her computer and began to type in certain commands.

"Five of the suspects have half and half their D.N.A," Sakura said as the plasma screen changed to show five of the suspects D.N.A in comparison to their parents.

"Are you saying that all five of those are their children?" Itachi finally asked to clarify his conclusion.

"Exactly, but the fifth one, she's been dead the longest…M.E estimated ten years, and I'm running the finger print imprints left on her gloves in our passport system. But if I had to guess, the girl is the female suspect's sister, or half sister."

"Every time we work with our forensics department it takes them days to get a quarter of this much," Iruka complimented the pink haired doctor.

Sakura flashed him a smile, "I have top of the line equipment, and I'm used to having to get information quickly," and then returned to her serious demeanor as she turned back to the evidence, "okay, now some partial finger prints were lifted – I have to play jigsaw puzzle with them to see if they match your suspects."

"I'm convinced we have the bad guys in custody," Iruka said, "What I don't understand is the motive to it."

Itachi didn't respond and Sakura was concentrating on running various systems through her computer to give them her absolute attention. After an hour of more forensic work, everything pointed at Valintina and her husband. When Sakura was signing off on the evidence release forms, Kabuto entered her lab.

"Good morning Sakura, company?"

"Oh, yes," Sakura said looking up with a greeting smile, "Iruka is a criminal detective and he asked me to look into a case."

Itachi narrowed his eyes at her and she ignored him. As far as Sakura was concerned Itachi had nothing to do with the case but only there to overlook to make sure that she didn't butcher it in revenge.

"You sure you should be mixing your jobs like this?" Kabuto asked as he glanced around her lab, noting that the screens were showing D.N.A. graphs.

"It's not a problem," Sakura said handing Iruka the paper work for him to sign as well.

"I'd hate to think that you've placed your initial job on the back burner," Kabuto continued.

Sakura's tone dropped threateningly, "I do believe my contract gives me ample time to work on whatever tickles my fancy."

Itachi crossed his arms as he observed their interaction. He liked the Kabuto fellow for apparently pushing her buttons, though he did not like the buttons he was pushing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be insulting," Kabuto said, with no hint of sincerity, "we are very grateful for your prescience."

"Mmmm," Sakura replied under her breathe as she smiled at Iruka, "let me know if you need me to come to court…now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for my weekly rounds with the interns so please kindly get the hell out of my office before I contaminate it with deadly airborne pathogens that only effect the male species," she finished off with a big sweet smile as the sliding glass door swooshed open and she waited for everyone to leave.

When she heard the hospital elevator door open and close, she let out a monstrous yawn.

"God…damnit," she muttered as she grabbed her copy of the detective's report and walked to her file cabinet to place it in its appropriate slot. She kept records of everything anyone asked her to do. "Two hours with interns and tumor removal on a five year old…" She whispered.

She turned around and walked towards the steel fridge in the back of the room, "legalities, semantics, meh," she continued to mutter halfheartedly as she pressed the bright red decompression button and a fifteen-number code on the side of the device where the keypad was situated. A loud slush sound echoed in her lab as the door cracked slightly and ice cold steam escaped from the cracks. Sakura opened it and reached through the fog to grab a large syringe whose needle was almost two inches long. She kicked the door closed with her leg and elbowed the decompression button to secure its lock.

She took off her lab coat, lifted the sleeve of shirt, and gave herself the shot that she had developed for the U.S marines two years ago. It was only to be used on special ops missions, but hey, her job was close enough.

It caused severe insomnia and released a constant dose of adrenaline for ninety-two hours, which made it perfect for those covert and dangerous missions out in the desert and for long days. Of course like most drugs, it had a few side effects.

At least she countered that whole heart stopping thing already so death wasn't possible except in cases of extreme overdose. She cringed as the icy-blue liquid disappeared from the vile and into her body, her temperature would drop and her heart rate would slow to a steady 40 beats per minute. Most importantly, it kept the fatigue at bay, the last thing she needed was not being at her optimal level during a surgery, plus with Kabuto's rude comment echoing in the back of her head – she had to find some sort of breakthrough in her research before her serum wore off. She was not going to let him report her to the Board for slacking.

.

…

.

Itachi was busy working on the upcoming case for the next few days and didn't care much for Sakura's existence. She provided him with proof he needed and Judge Pein had set up the hearing for the upcoming Monday. He was going to be going up against some big hot shot from Washington, and was busy building his opponents case.

The reason Itachi never lost, was because he was his own devil's advocate. He worked to the best of his ability building a solid case against himself, and then he'd take a hammer and smash it to pieces. He'd made more than his fair share of criminal defendants damn him to hell.

He was good like that.

.

…

.

Sakura could feel her palms begin to sweat, her special serum effects were wearing off and she would be unconscious in less than seven hours. She had been working none stop, and often kicking out everyone who came into her lab to 'check up on her'.

_Damn them all to hell. _

_And damn Itachi again too. _

Because Itachi always deserved an extra damning as far as she was concerned.

She had to find a cure or a way to resist the multiplication of cancer cells because she was not going to let anyone think that she was inadequate at her job or didn't deserve her position. She had to find something….

She had to.

Usually, left to her own devices, she would recreate the virus from scratch and then figure out how to tear it apart and leave it impotent. Problem was, apparently it was unethical.

That's why she preferred to work in foreign countries, their idea of unethical only occurred when there was no product to show after grant money ran out. That was unethical and an injustice to all citizens of the world.

She recalled, when she was working on a strain of plague virus, the Russian government offered her death row test subjects.

She hated experimenting with humans during the early stages of research, but when she was left alone with a man chained to the wall who had kidnapped; raped, tortured, and left for dead over twenty disabled women…nothing could stop her from taking slight pleasure in using him as a guinea pig.

There were a few cases where she had injected the human lab-rats with lethal injection because she could not bear the psychological trauma they induced on her. It was the downside of knowing fifteen languages; she understood every word of their description of their horrible acts and what they'd like to do to her and had done to others. They always wanted to rile her up – to get her to expose her emotions to them. She would much rather kill them than let them see her be affected by their words.

Sakura shivered involuntarily, the A/C in the lab was chilling her uncomfortably. She looked up at the T.V screen on the right as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with her forearm.

"Work harder, damnit," she muttered to herself as she changed slides on the microscope, "come on."

.

…

.

"Damn, Itachi, that was brutal, you sent that man crying home," Shisui congratulated Itachi as they made their way down the courthouse stairs.

"Good," the younger replied as he avoided the reporters who were currently attacking his opponent and his lawyer with a fever of questions he didn't want to be a part of.

"You look like hell, man, let's go celebrate."

"I have another case going to trail tomorrow morning, I have to get back to the office."

"Jeez, seriously – you're already like a hero in the legal world, what are you trying to become a God now?"

Itachi replied with a glare.

"Okay, okay, chill. So how's the pink haired cutie? Iruka told me she's even hotter than the pictures showed."

"Really?" he deadpanned.

"Well obviously not, but he used all those proper English-man adjectives that only means if he was a sleazebag he woulda tapped that."

"He's Korean."

"Korean, English…who cares."

"God, how the hell do you win your cases?" Itachi asked sarcastically.

"It's my good looks and charm; the constitution bends in my favor."

"Sometimes I doubt your father is your biological parent," Itachi said in a cheek in tongue manner.

"Meh, old geezer thinks he's all high and mighty to be on the Supreme Court – I could do his job in my sleep. You wouldn't believe what –"

His phone rang. Shisui picked it up.

"Shisui, super sexy lawyer who always saves the day and rescues the lady while kicking bad guy ass….hey Anko…yes, be right over," he hung up, "Looks like a rain check. I need to go to the precinct to be briefed and they need a search warrant on suspect involved in international smuggling," he told Itachi and before his younger cousin could ask if he needed help Shisui gracefully declined, "I'll take care of it, you go finish your courty stuff and get some rest. Let me know if you need any help."

"Mmm," Itachi nodded as Shisui raised his fist, and more of a habit than actually courtesy, he fisted him back.

His cousin was never going to act his age and sometimes Itachi was forced to stoop to his level.

.

…

.

When he got back to his apartment, which had been fully furnished by the most expensive black and white Italian leather known to mankind, he half expected Sakura's stuff to be completely gone. After all, she hadn't made an appearance for almost 4 days, and even though he, himself, was very overworked, it was nice to feel "at home" again.

Of course the stupid pink haired girl could never let anything go right.

After a quick microwave meal and shower, he forfeited doing his paperwork until tomorrow and made his way into his bedroom.

There he discovered the vain of his existence taking up the entire bed with her outstretched limbs. Itachi was fully capable of grabbing her and tossing her on the floor and was about to do so until he got closer.

It was the moonlight's fault.

The glass ceiling allowed the natural light to shine in giving her hair a skin a beautiful glow and her face looked divinely peaceful. His mother and nanny's had taught him to always be chivalrous and proper to ladies, especially when they were in a defensive position. He cursed them both under his breath. He just couldn't attack her now…even for the damn bed.

Itachi being more Itachi than a hormonal male became so disgusted with his thoughts that he stormed out of his bedroom and went into the living room angrily. Muttering a long line of curses and insults to every deity he could think of from Greek to Japanese, he turned on the brand new flat screen T.V and flipped to through the channels till he came to one that was showing an old James Bond rerun.

He laid sideways on the ten thousand dollar couch and watched the movie, ignoring the fact that he wasn't able by his moral standards, to kick her out of the bed when she was asleep like that.

.

…

.

Itachi had woken in the middle of the night, not due to the T.V, or his internal clock telling him it was time to get up, but by the most annoying ring known to mankind.

Rising up from the couch and trying to orientate himself in his sleepy daze he followed the sound of the techno music, only to come into his bedroom where the stupid wretch slept. _In his bed._

She didn't even stir from the ear piercing ringing of her phone. Itachi snatched up her navy messanger bag which was at the foot of the bed and when he reached inside the ringing stopped.

Then it started again.

He grabbed her phone, saw RESTRICTED as the ID, dropped the bag down, and then walked towards the master bathroom and tossed the phone into the toilet. The phone fell to the bottom, the ringing continued for two more seconds before fizzling out.

With another fleeting look at her body, he couldn't imagine a corpse being able to sleep through such an annoying loud ring. The only reassurance he had that she wasn't actually dead was that she was still breathing. God knows; if she turned up dead – he'd be the primary suspect.

.

…

.

Eventually 5 A.M rolled around, and Itachi folded his laptop closed – after Sakura's cellular disturbance, he was unable to go to sleep.

He quickly changed into his workout clothes and went downstairs to the second floor gym. After a ten minute warm up on the bicycle, he went over to the treadmill and turned on the T.V that was directly above the machine.

Getting onto his favorite news station he began his 5 mile run of the day.

"The Senator refused to comment on the alleged bribery by the suspect of the Cohen scandal," a male anchorman with black sleek hair and impossibly bright blue eyes dictated from a prewritten script.

"Spectators believe th –," the overpaid spokesman paused, his finger going to his earpiece, "we just received breaking news. As we reported at 8:43 P.M last night, Doctor Sakura Haruno, graduate of Harvard College and John Hopkins University, had claimed to have found a treatment and a possible cure to people suffering with melanoma without the need of surgery or chemotherapy. We have just been informed by the Science Academy of the Nations that preliminary testing has confirmed Haruno's findings. We go to Mary-Sue on the scene at Konoha Hospital with the team of testers."

Itachi increased his speed as his face gave no indication of his mood.

"Thank you Mark, we are here in Konoha hospital where the top scientists have been flying in since 9:00 P.M last night. They have been diligently working on confirming or disproving Sakura Haruno's findings. Doctor Tarum, can you tell us what you have found?"

"Yes, of course," the Arabic doctor said in a thick accent, "it seems as though Sakura had created a mutating agent with a self destruct configuration. In lemans terms, the counter-measure she created freezes the cancer cells from reproducing and then over a period of a few hours naturally decomposes them. The waste is then is removed naturally through sweat, breathing, and excretion. We need more testing to see how safe this method is, but on our experiments on lab rats and monkeys – both have experienced a stead elimination of the disease in the past five hours."

"Wow," the anchorwoman said with more emphasis then needed, "how soon do you think this will go on the market?"

"Well, it will probably be in its experimental stages for about a year before we can endorse it in case studies…and maybe two years from now, if it is proven safe – we will be using it as treatment."

The anchorwoman turned to the camera, "you heard it here first, the major type of skin cancer may be curable within the upcoming year. Back to you, Mark."

"Thank you, Mary-sue. Now isn't that something? And all this within the two weeks of Dr. Haruno's contract with Konoha, the hospital's sure to give her a raise! Haha. Unfortunately, Dr. Haruno has been unavailable for questioning but we will keep you updated throughout the day on this spectacular discover. On another happy note – farmers have…."

.

…

.

"Dude! Holy shit did you hear?" Shisui said walking into Itachi's office.

"I am surprised how you are able to keep all your bad verbal habits out of the court room," Itachi replied without looking up as he reviewed a case the D.A had placed into his mailbox.

"Nah, I've let a few shits and fucks go…but only to the judge that are old farts. Anyway," Shisui said loosening his tie and sitting down in front of Itachi's large desk with piles of paper work.

His younger cousin ignored him.

"Dude…skin cancer…cured. Do you have any idea how popular tanning is going to get again?"

"Obstruction of justice," Itachi muttered to himself as he took notes on his yellow pad.

"Yes…yes legal mumbo-jumbo, dude, tan lines are going to be back in style…I can already imagine it…no more pasty pale…sweet caramel…mmmmm….tan lines are like highlights for the naughty areas…so awesome."

"You sound like Guy," Itachi said about a fellow youth-enthusiast coworker.

"That man's a pedophile in a suit, I'm offended."

"Anko was 13 and you were 20."

"Must you go there?"

"You were 8 and she was still shitting in diapers," Itachi continued as he wrote another legal term on his pad.

"Itachi, only you know how to downplay a cure to cancer…"

"What would you like me to do?" Itachi finally looked up, "jump for joy like a catholic school girl and do cartwheels across the room because idiots who are incapable of putting sunscreen on can officially opt for kitchen oil and fry themselves under the sun without all those pesky health risks?"

"I just imagined you in a catholic school girl uniform with pom poms," Shisui avoided the pen that was tossed straight at his head like a dagger, "jeez cheer up, dude – you are living with the best medical medicy lady known to mankind. Get her to wear one of those skimpy nurse outfits and let her…relieve you of that stick up your ass."

Itachi's jaw tightened.

"Okay…okay…so, my sister came in this morning…thankfully Anko had already left for work. You're still going to take her out tomorrow, right? You know how much I need this. She'd probably let you get a quickie in the theater if you –"

"I will murder you if you don't get out," Itachi deadpanned.

"Got it, got it…jeez," Shisui said standing up defensively with his hands raised, "I think someone needs their yearly shrink-assessment and maybe a new set of meds," he added before making his hasty exit.

Itachi sighed.

Why the hell did she have to be a medical saint AND have a spine?

.

…

.

**Next afternoon: **

Sakura stirred from her deep sleep, and felt her body begin to tremble due to her entrance to consciousness. She made a mental note to see if she could subdue to side effects of the insomnia shot, and then made another mental note not to think for a few years as jackhammers went off inside her head.

She tried to moan, but that hurt.

She tried to move, but that caused more pain.

Breathing and keeping her eyes closed worked.

She was unaware how long she stayed that way, but when she finally got the energy to open her eyes again, she discovered that it was twilight. She turned her head to the side causing her neck to crack three times, and watched the sunset.

"God," she muttered in a raspy voice, "if I believed in you – I'd hate you a lot right now…"

She looked back up at the glass ceiling and watched the clouds pass by.

"Ugh, phone," she muttered as she forced herself to sit up. Another set of dozen joints snap, crackled, and popped.

The number of bone cracking was uncountable and every single movement seemed to irritate her joints. She cursed herself as she reached into her bag and looked for her cell phone but it wasn't there.

She growled, must have left it in the hospital. She needed to call Tsunade…and Ino…and all those other people who were probably raping her cell phone and voicemail.

Sakura ran her weak fingers through her hair – it was oily and hay-like. She sniffed her underarm and with a disgusted expression, declared that she needed a shower. She looked across the room at the master bathroom door. It was so far away. After five minutes of mentally attempting to make the door come closer, she decided that she was being ridiculous.

With slow, precise, and careful movements she got up and walked into the bathroom. Then stopped, and turned around.

That was not the bed she ordered.

And those weren't the bookshelves she picked out.

She definitely did not buy that nightstand or lamp either.

Her eyebrow twitched.

"Bastaaaahd," she knew it was somehow Itachi's fault.

Then something caught her eye, she looked down and was greeted with her phone in the toilet bowl.

Now _that _was definitely Itachi's doing. That man needed to be cremated alive.

* * *

**A/N**:There will be plenty more chapters with revenge schemes :D...I just kinda wanted to have a plot in there...somewhere ;)

Thank you for reading, commenting, and I hope you enjoyed! :) I love receiving reviews so much 3

Just out of curiosity - who are you rooting for? Team Sakura or Team Itachi?


	6. So many things wrong with you

Itachi heard the sound of the shower running in the bathroom as he went inside the bedroom and towards the vanity stand.

He was looking for his Italian cologne and his platinum cufflinks to match his silver silk tie.

After he sprayed himself and put on his cufflinks, the water stopped and moments later a wet Sakura clad in only a light pink towel walked out of the bathroom. He didn't turn around to greet her, instead he watched her approach him in the mirror.

"You know when electronics are thrown into bodies of water, they stop working," she informed him in a slightly raspy voice as she crossed her arms. He wasn't sure if it sounded like a morning-sex voice or sore-throat-after-a-concert voice. She had slept a good 40 plus hours in a luxurious bed, and Itachi had spent two nights on the couch. The pink-haired woman had no right to complain over some stupid piece of electronics as far as he was concerned.

"Hn," he responded as he turned his attention to knotting his tie.

"I don't recall ordering these horrendous pieces of furniture…" she continued.

"Hn."

His peripheral vision caught her face change; it was blatantly obvious how she was trying to restrain herself from knocking his head into the mirror. He restrained his own smirk – he was enjoying this.

"Going somewhere?"

"Yes," Itachi responded buttoning his gray vest over his tie, "a date," he added – for what reason, he didn't know.

"Oh, hmmmm, is she deaf?"

"No."

"Mute?"

"No."

"Blind?"

"No."

"Real?"

"Yes," Itachi answered in a hiss as he turned around and loamed over her intimidating.

She wasn't in the least bit fazed, "if you're going to pull an LBJ, I suggest more finger pointing and yelling."

Itachi was slightly shocked by her Johnson treatment reference; her mind seemed to work without an identifiable pattern but that didn't mean he couldn't keep up with her. He was Itachi, after all – no political reference ever escaped him.

"He only did that to people who worked for him – I'd never hire you, you're too under qualified," the Uchiha male responded walking past her and towards the hallway.

"Why you little…" Sakura growled under her breath.

.

…

.

The doorbell rang, and Itachi placed his half finished glass of whiskey down on the kitchen counter and grabbed his suit jacket off the chair.

Maria had insisted on coming to get him, she liked being overbearing like that, and it might have had something to do with the last time he was suppose to pick her up, he got sidetrack by something or other and didn't show up.

After he unlocked and opened the door, he was greeted by, arguably, the most beautiful woman that money could buy. She had impossibly bright blue eyes and wavy bleach blonde hair and a great big smile which showed off her stainless and glossy white teeth. Her figure was over exaggerated due to years of plastic surgery to reach porn-star perfection and her short little dark blue dress did an excellent job accentuating it all.

"Hello, Maria," he greeted politely, and suddenly her smile fell into a look of horror.

He was unable to assess the situation properly or fast enough as one slender arm wrapped around his waist and another one around his arm. He felt two soft breasts pushed up against his elbow.

"Itachi-love, is this the masseuse you ordered for me?" Sakura purred sensually.

"Wha-what is going on?" Maria's expression was priceless and completely indescribable. The botox had frozen areas of her face which should have wrinkled up with disgust and shock.

"Dear," Sakura turned closer to him and rubbed her body up against him sexually, "I wasn't done with you, yet."

When Itachi's cold, angry, and frustrated eyes glared down at her, he realized she was half naked…taking that thought back – she was naked. See-through lace bra and panties did not count as clothing in his book.

He watched her turn to look at Maria, "are you going to come in? I have a sore spot right on my lower back," her slightly raspy voice made her sound all the more alluring and nymphic, "Itachi had flipped me upside down while we were doing it doggy style on the bed…and then he wanted to do it up against the window…I'm terribly sore now. He's been trying to make it better…alllllllllll day," she moaned out as she leaned her head on his shoulder, smiling wickedly at the blonde.

"I…uh," he could see the tears forming in Maria's eyes but Itachi, himself was at a loss for words – he didn't know Sakura could be so foolhardy, "there…I'm…I don't…," Maria tried to choke out something compressible.

"Oh dear," Sakura moved to the side, giving Maria a full view of her naked body and the jealousy in Maki's insecure face was something no amount of Botox would ever hide, "do you have the wrong apartment?"

"I…uh…yes, yes I do. I'm sor-sorry, bye!" her heels clicked behind her as she retreated towards the elevator to cry her eyes out in peace.

"Hah, man – that woman's had too much work done…au natural – best way to go," Sakura responded as she kicked the door closed and was about to walk away but Itachi had finally decided to act. He grabbed her arm and shoved her roughly with her back to the wall and then caged her between his outstretched arms.

"Mmmm?" She looked up at him innocently.

"What the fuck was that?" He snarled out in anger. He had never, in his whole life been frozen in a situation. This was ridiculous.

"Actually…I really do have this terribly sore spot…do you think maybe I should see a chiropractor?" she continued with the seductress façade.

"I would never sleep with someone like you – I have better taste," he said aiming at her pride.

"Better is a relative and subjective term, but I think you are totally right, Miss. Barbie is totally your type – rich, fake, and brainless; just like you…I am so in out of my league with her…screw league, I don't think I'm in the same species as her," she countered defiantly, dropping the sweet girl act and showing her bitch-side.

"Heh," he couldn't defend Maria even if he wanted to, "you are very interesting you know that?" he moved his face closer to hers, she was witty, he'd give her that.

She moved her head back till it touched the wall, and he continued talking as he bent his elbows to get even closer to her, "I warn you, princess," he whispered and she could feel his sweet hot alcohol flavored breath on her face.

It was her turn to be frozen in place.

"I will make you suffer," he said.

She wanted to say, "I like it rough," with a smirk and challenge him but her voice got stuck somewhere between her stomach and pelvis. She wanted to slap him but his eyes were so close that they seemed to glow a slight red in the orange light of the room. She wanted to punch his jaw, but his face was too flawless and she wanted him to get closer. While at the same time wanted to knee him in the groan and make a run for it, but he made her feel as though she was chained to the wall.

It was wrong.

All wrong.

And it got worse.

It went from wrong to unethical the moment he placed his lips against hers.

It wasn't a sweet and chaste kiss – it was rough and mean. It was hard and powerful. It was a kiss from someone who had flunked out of anger management classes. It was the kiss of domination. She remained frozen as he raped her mouth and she wasn't even able to stop him. She wasn't sure she even wanted to.

He grabbed her bottom lip, and sucked on it harshly before biting it between his teeth and tugging it. He let go and moved his face away from her, the smug expression on his beautiful face was the type seen in Vogue on males who knew they had it all. His eyes blazing straight at hers made her feel helpless.

"I doubt you will be able to handle it," he said as he locked his elbows and looked at her up and down from head to toe – twice.

After Sakura had reached puberty she had never – ever felt insecure about her body, until Itachi had blatantly checked her out in her see-through lace lingerie.

He breathed a "tch", and moved away from her and walked down the hall into the office room. The door slammed shut.

Sakura's knees gave out and she slid down to the chilly marble floor. Her mind normally worked quickly, but at that moment it worked too quickly – she was incapable of following her own thoughts. What had just happened was impossibly wrong. She should have hit him, hurt him in ways that would cause him to suffer permanent damage. But she had done nothing. She allowed him to dominate her. In all her relationships, she was always the one in charge – the one to initiate. The one to allow.

.

…

.

Itachi went into the office and began to think of every single vile thought he could.

Apparently he was more of harmonious male than he liked to believe.

Naruto and Sasuke kissing….Olives…Shisui….

"Ugh," he snarled as his hard on refused to go away. Every time he tried to think of something he didn't like, his mind flashed the image of a submissive Sakura clad in nearly nothing.

God damn photographic memory.

She was turning him into some sort of idiot.

.

…

.

It only took a few moments for Sakura to recover herself, because when a situation became too complicated for her – she'd always turn to math problems. She was never good at confronting her emotions.

½ + it, and she went about trying to prove that the non trivial zeros of the Riemann Zeta-function lie on the critical line.

She forced herself into the bedroom and walked towards the corner that Itachi had – all so kindly identified as hers, and grabbed her pajamas, physics textbook, pencil, and scrap book from the stacked boxes. She had to avoid addressing the previous moment – the kiss… psychology was a soft science – what good was it in the real world? Math worked…always. As her mind continued to play with numbers, she changed and then glared at the bed.

_Fuck it_, her normally quiet inner self spat, the bastard stole your furniture – _it's as much your bed as his_! By not sleeping in it, that would be like raising a white flag. Sakura was not one to even carry a white flag.

She nodded to herself and sat on the right side of the bed and opened her scrap book and began to play around with equations.

.

…

.

Eventually – thinking of Shisui and Anko having sex calmed him down enough for him to regain control over his body. He cleared his throat and furrowed his eyebrows.

He would not be bested by anyone, especially not himself.

Itachi stepped outside of the office, with a law book in hand and walked into the bedroom – she was not going to take the bed again.

When he entered, Sakura didn't even take her eyes off her notebook as she scribbled furiously, and he did not fail to notice how the entire left side of the bed was empty. It was almost inviting. In the same way a cheetah invites a gazelle into her domain.

He resisted throwing the thousand page leather-bound book at her when she put the pencil between her lips almost teasingly.

_Two could play. _

_Two could play…_

Itachi placed his book on the bed and went about changing in the same room as her.

Sakura noticed him after the book made a thump sound and when she looked up – he was shirtless. She turned her attention back on her math problem, but her eyes (without permission) wandered to him after he took off his pants to reveal black silk boxers. She licked her lips unconsciousness and he glanced up in time to notice the action.

Red faced and angry at herself, she glued her eyes to her work. What the hell made her want to solve the Euler-Mascheroni Constant conundrum when thousands of mathematicians couldn't was beyond her at that point because she could feel the bed shift and the numbers on her paper no longer made sense. Her eyes begged to look to the side.

They were screaming at it.

Why did the asshole have to be so pretty? He had an eight pack set of abs, who the hell has an eight pack? And his hair was more luscious than hers. It was ridiculous.

She grabbed her pencil out of her mouth and pointed it at the limit equations and started the entire problem all over again. She mentally yelled every number on the page to herself, but had to start again when Itachi distracted her by his movement and page shuffling.

Bastard.

Then, thanks to the deities of all science and goodness, her mind clicked again and she understood the math junk written all over the page. She quickly applied the hadjicostas's formula to the last function she was working on and began to expand and break it down as much as possible.

She was alone in the room.

He was not there.

He was not in his boxers.

He was not reading a book in bed next to her.

He did not smell utterly divine of…

She sniffed the air.

It was like vanilla – something so sweet but mixed with a woodsy smell she remembered from when she went camping. It was sweet in a natural and manly way.

_Math problem! Math problem! _

The page looked like gargle again.

"Apply Merten's Theorem," he said dully.

She looked at him in shock, but his eyes were back on his law book.

Part of Sakura wanted to stab him with a pencil, the other part wanted to tell him to mind his own business. Instead she did the third most immature thing she could; she closed her notebook and placed it on the nightstand beside her, reached for her physics text book and opened it. She began reading all the wonderful theorems and discoveries.

Sadly, she couldn't make sense of anything as her mind would wander to him every other sentence, so she had to turn the page more for effect than actually progressive reading. The bastard had kissed her, and he was acting so nonchalant about it…it pissed her off.

Itachi retained from chuckling when she slammed her notebook shut after he tried to assist her and the intense look of concentration as she read the physics textbook was almost comical.

But he was also suffering.

Itachi couldn't keep his eyes from glancing at her own reading material. He was somewhere between the sixth amendment interpretations and Newton's use of the reflective telescope and its furthered development into the 21st century. That was some very fuzzy and interesting middle ground.

This lasted well into two in the morning since neither they were apparently having an unspoken contest. Sakura was the first to pass out; her face pressed against the pages of her physics books.

Itachi sighed. He couldn't believe his immaturity level.

.

…

.

Itachi had woken up first to find that his pillow had been stolen sometime in the middle of the night. When he looked over at Sakura, she was using it as a stuffed animal, cuddling it close to her chest.

"Idiot," he half muttered, half whispered as he got out of bed, rubbing his neck gently to ease the stiffness.

After his morning workout, he entered the bedroom to use the master-bathroom and found that Sakura had already left. She had made the bed, and placed the stolen pillow back on his side.

Itachi remembered Sakura's schedule by heart, and knew today was the day she did rounds with the interns.

Payback was going to be sweet. Shisui had already called him over thirty times the night before, wanting an explanation of what happened. But before he could tell his cousin how Sakura had gotten the better of him – he was going to get the better of her.

.

…

.

"Good morning Mr. Leeroy," Sakura greeted one of the patients as a group of eight interns followed her closely.

"Good morning, Sakura," the middle aged man smiled at her as he looked back at the T.V screen showing Wheel of Fortune reruns.

"Mr. Leeroy has spinal stenosis, what would be the appropriate mode of action?" she turned to students.

"Chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine," one of the boys answered.

"Good, but not very effective – next."

"Decompressive laminectomy," the shortest girl in the group offered.

"For surgery – yes that would be a good option, what else would be good to do during the laminectomy procedure?" Sakura asked but before anyone could respond, someone called her name.

A very evil somebody.

When Sakura looked at the owner of the voice, a part of her wished that she had a reset and rewind button handy. Something bad was about to happen…she could feel it.

"Sakura," Itachi said with a smile…a fake smile.

"Excuse me sir, but I am busy. Some of us prefer to save lives instead of place them into financially draining legal binds," Sakura replied coldly.

"And," he began moving between the crowd of interns so he could be standing in full view of her, "some of us prefer our partners to be faithful," his smile dropped, "how could you Sakura? Having sex with an eighty-five year old man? And getting crabs from him! I would have never thought you were such a little slut."

Sakura's eyes widened tenfold before she could even register the situation. The hospital had gone eerily silent as everyone paid close attention to the display of a romantic dispute by two of Konoha's leading figures.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," Itachi said sadly and cocked his head to the side so only she could see the smug and maliciously evil expression on his face, "I can't be with someone like you…I just…I just deserve better than someone like you…I can't be your dominatrix lover anymore," he said turning around and walking out.

"Uh…Doctor. Haruno?" One of interns asked in fear as their teacher's expression changed from shock to pure utter furry.

"I am going to rip his fucking balls off!" She snarled as she pushed her way through her interns and two nurses as she ran after the bastard who had just insinuated that she was in a relationship with him, had an old man fetish, was unfaithful, and had crabs.

That was low.

She would never be in a relationship with him!

Ever!

She finally caught up with him as he exited out the hospital and began to walk down the street.

"YOU BASTARD!" Sakura screamed as she grabbed his arm and forced him to face her, but before logic kicked in, she had already decked him in the face.

Because that's what pissed off doctors did in front of hospitals. They punched the town's most prestigious lawyers.

She went to uppercut him in the solar plex, because really – if she happened to shatter a rib or two in the process at least the emergency room was nearby.

But Itachi, first stunned that the petite little doctor could pack a punch was not going to be done in twice. He quickly side stepped her second attack and used her fierce momentum to grab her arm, and twist her around so she was bent over a nearby parked car with her arm locked behind her.

A group of paramedics stopped loading their truck to look at them.

"I don't think this is very proper," Itachi whispered.

Again, to his surprise Sakura had managed to twist herself out of his lock and did a spinning kick to his face. He blocked it at point blank and wrapped his arm around her ankle and calf, forcing her back on the hood of the car and leaned forward, applying threatening pressure to her ankle.

"You seem to like the provocative positions don't you?" He smirked.

Then Sakura headbutted him.

She headbutted him.

What girl in their right mind headbutts a guy?

But it was enough for him to loosen his grip on her slightly and she tried to kick him away, but he quickly used his skills in grappling to flip her onto the pavement (properly so no spinal damage was done), and locked her with his legs around her waist and both of their hands were on eachothers throats – trying to choke the other out.

It wasn't in the best position for her and because of the arm length difference she was barely able to apply any pressure to him.

"You lose, admit it, and leave the apartment," Itachi said as he placed his thumb on her collar bone.

Sakura shut her eyes tightly from the pain, "no, you jackass!" she gasped out.

"You'd rather lose consciousness then move out?" Itachi asked dully – her irrationality was becoming more and more dangerous, for both of them.

Sakura quickly moved her hands from his throat to his elbows and did something that was too advanced for a civilian to even know of. She popped them at a sixty degree angle, causing them to unlock and loosen his choke lock on her, and then she used her own force to propel him to the side in hopes of gaining the upper hand and become the one on top. She straddled him, his fingers were between her rib cage applying insane amounts of pressure and she was about to pop his Adams Apple with her own hands. He didn't want to break her ribs, but if she continued this – and that's what it took to stop her…he was going to.

She stopped applying pressure when someone called her name.

"Sakura Haruno!"

The pink haired medic weary dirty and blood-stained scrubs looked up at a very large breasted blonde woman who was staring down at them.

"Tsunade!" Sakura gasped pausing her attempt to kill a man. Itachi pushed her aside when her attention went elsewhere.

"Hah, used to pick fights with jocks in high school and now you pick fights with Wall Street guys?" her mentor said with a chuckle, "you haven't changed a bit."

Sakura looked at Itachi who was already standing up and she quickly jumped to her feet, feeling incredibly embarrassed.

"Pleasure to meet you Tsunade," he said calmly, "Itachi Uchihla."

"Oh, my…the eldest son of Fugaku…too bad I can't like you," she replied smiling as she shook his hand, "my little Sakura would like you to torture in the most colorful ways imaginable," she squeezed his hand painfully.

He squeezed back just as hard, "don't worry – the feeling is mutual."

"Heh, good sport aren't you?" Tsunade grinned, "We should go drinking some time!"

"Tsunade!" Sakura squeaked at the older woman.

"Yeah…yeah," Tsunade let go of Itachi's grip and opened and closed her hand repetitively trying to get the blood flowing back.

He kept his numb hand unmoved. He was good at not showing reactions to anything…that is, if you ignored the fact that he had just gotten into a brawl on the street with a girl.

"Excuse me, I have to go place some people into financially draining legal binds," Itachi said smiling as he fixed his tie and waved a lazy goodbye at the two females.

When Itachi turned to leave, Sakura jumped into her mentor's arms.

"I missed you so much!" the younger girl nearly shouted into tears.

"You know, he doesn't look like a mutated Frankenstein mixed with a disfigured Jekyll."

"I know, I said a disfigured Hyde, he was the evil personality, Jekyll was the nice one."

"Uh huh," Tsunade nodded as they broke their embrace, "I think you need an icepack – did you headbutt him?" she asked feeling around the shorter female's forehead.

"He said some really crappy things."

"Mmm, well I noticed that he was holding back in the fight…that style reminds me of that Chinese guy in the west….remember the one we went to see two years ago?"

"Psha, yeah right – stop giving him credit he probably doesn't deserve."

"Oh…yes, excuse me. I have no observational skills what so ever…right?" Tsunade asked sarcastically lifting an eyebrow, "come on, let me see your lab…and change your scrubs. Hello boys!" The blonde greeted the Paramedics who were still staring dumbfounded at the situation.

.

…

.

"ItachiiiiiiiiI! Guess –" Shisui stopped halfway into his cousin's office.

A list of thoughts ran through his head.

He had to have sex with Anko inside his office.

He had to have sex with Anko on a banana hammock.

He had to have sex with Anko inside a jail cell (again).

He had to go to confession.

He had to teepee his old football coach's house.

He had to run that marathon he always meant to.

All these 'had to' raced through his head because Itachi was in his office with an icepack on his jaw…and that could only mean one thing. The world was going to end. Really damn soon.

"What?" the injured man growled.

"You…did….oh my god, is some crazed psycho on the loose?"

Itachi found it ironic how close his cousin was to the truth.

"Who is it? A serial killer? Mass murderer? Foreign dictator? Terrorist?"

"Haruno," Itachi replied moving one of his case files to the side with his free hand.

"The barely five foot tall, hundred pound, pink haired doctor?" Shisui felt like he was about to self-combust with laughter.

Itachi didn't bother to respond to that.

"You know…if someone had to get punched by a saint, it would be you."

"She is far from saint-like."

"Yeah…saving bajillions of lives….so how'd you make her snap? Do your interrogatory mind tricks?"

"Shisui…for once…can you just shut up?"

"Hell no, Maria comes home and cries a storm, Anko tries killing her, and all I get is that some pink haired slut was all over 'her' man and that somehow translates to her needing new boobs…or something. I have had no sex for thirty hours! And now you…you got hit in the face. Dude, the last time you got hit… you killed the guy."

Itachi wished he could kill Shisui at that moment.

"So…did you tap that ass and say something wildly inappropriate the morning after?"

"There was no ass tapping. She decided to…do whatever it is Maria told you for some irrationally stupid reason and I decided to tell the entire hospital where she works that she has crabs, and a thing for old men and ….and then she retaliated with violence," Itachi deadpanned.

"There…are so many things wrong with you…I don't think I could make a list – I'd feel bad for the forest that'd be chopped down for the paper…"

"I told you what happened, now stop being annoying."

"No problem, bro – anyone asks I'll just say you fell down the stairs – that's the excuse those battered wives use right?" Shisui quickly corrected himself as he felt the threatening aura radiate off Itachi, "kidding, kidding – okay, we did some morning boxing and I decked you…or some golden glove winner decked you…some super duper martial artsy black ops secret service guy decked you? Right…right."

The air stilled and Shisui felt the urge to hum the twilight theme song.

Itachi slammed the icepack on the desk, but otherwise remained silent. The older Uchiha wondered if it was safe to leave.

It wasn't.

* * *

**A/N:** Your reviews just bring me to my knees in joy :). Thank you so much. I hope everyone is happy with the quick update! Annnnnnd enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think!

Who do you think was the winner this round? ;)


	7. I learned that in Law 101

This one goes out to "Kaze and Kiba" and "animemistress419"...thank you :)

* * *

After hours of catching up in the midst of shopping (one of items purchased was a new phone) and lunch, Sakura and Tsunade caught a cab ride to the airport midafternoon. Her loving mentor wasn't able to stay for very long and only came out of worry because some jackass tossed her phone into the toilet and made her uncontactable.

They sat at a nearby Starbucks, arriving early enough to be able to spend some more leisurely time together.

"Too bad I couldn't see the apartment," Tsuande said after she paid for both their coffees.

"You should stay for another day," Sakura whined as they went to wait for their beverages to be made.

"And let my hospital fall apart? No thank you, we have a new Chief of Surgery…and I'm just waiting to catch him and Ino in the closet having sex….and don't even get me started on the interns."

Sakura chuckled, "I miss it already."

"We miss you too," the blonde smiled, "you should have heard the offers I got to endorse your new discovery….it would have paid for a new wing in the hospital."

"Would? You didn't take it?"

"I'm staying out of it, it's your thing," the woman said in a motherly tone that brought a soft pink blush across Sakura's cheeks.

"Maybe…when my contract expires we can go back to France," the younger doctor said looking away in slight embarrassment.

"Dear, I am too old. No more country hoping for me…it's nice to run a hospital in peace."

"You're not old," Sakura mumbled taking her coffee from the barista.

"Uh huh," Tsunade replied with a hint of sadness in her voice as she waved her hand off.

.

…

.

After watching Tsunade go through security and being ogled at by men half her age, Sakura called a taxi and got off at the local shopping district. She had the perfect plan to torture Itachi with.

.

…

.

Itachi came home at a quarter to nine in the evening, with a large stack of papers in his arm; his briefcase was already packed full of files. He wasn't able to get anything done at work because of a stupid office party and was forced to bring the majority of it home. When he walked in, he was greeted by a big orange ball of fur that was scratching up the one of a kind black and white leather couch in the living room.

"Itachi!" Sakura squeaked happily, rushing from the kitchen platform, picking up the cat on the way to greet him, "isn't he adorable?" She held it out to her roommate.

The cat meowed in anger as its paws lashed out towards Itachi and it wiggled around violently trying to get out of the pink-haired woman's grasp.

The lawyer only stared as he switched into his slippers. Sakura was very creative when it came to revenge.

"I don't think it likes you much," Itachi said as Sakura squeezed the cat closer to her chest in a strangely loving manner.

"Mmmm hmmm, he's also violent, has a temper, and ruins everything," she said as she followed Itachi into the kitchen, "I named him after you, Lucifier."

"The Christian devil?"

"Lucifier, Itachi, Satan, the devil, lawyer, my greatest annoyance…" Sakura continued naming off synonyms until the cat finally freed itself from her grasp and rushed towards the couch – to continue to claw it to death. "I do think I like Satan best though."

"How charming," Itachi replied sarcastically as he placed his paper work on the island and walked around towards the fridge. At least he wasn't allergic to cats.

"Looks like I'll need to get a new couch…there was this really beautiful red leather one with white pillows that is just divine."

"Won't the cat claw it up?" Itachi asked nonchalantly, "or do you plan to get him declawed before then?"

Sakura only smiled in response as the black haired man got out the ingredients for Lo'mein from the fridge and kitchen cabinets.

"Aren't you glad that we can get along civilly?" she asked as she took a seat on the island with her elbows on the table with her chin cradled in her open palms.

"Delighted," Itachi replied sourly as he checked the expiration date on a bottle of sauce.

"I can tell," Sakura said sarcastically before returning to her good mood, "I'm going to go take a shower…Saaaaaatan, want to come with meeee?" She yelled as she walked towards the living room and snagged the cat that protested as much as it could.

Itachi assumed that she was probably taking the cat with her in fear that he would dispose of it. He smirked to himself as he prepared his dinner.

He wasn't going to be bothered by the couch.

There were always casualties in war.

.

…

.

The night progressed uneventfully afterwards. Satan had found himself rather comfortable between Sakura's feet while she reviewed medical reports before bed. Itachi didn't join her until well into the night when both creatures were asleep.

.

…

.

Not surprisingly – no one at the hospital mentioned anything about the Itachi incident to Sakura. They knew better. The sexual life of someone who had just cured skin cancer was off limits….at least for a few months.

.

…

.

Not surprisingly – no one asked about Itachi's bruised jaw and thankfully they didn't see the dozens of cat scratches on his forearms. They knew better than to say anything. Any wound on Itachi must have come from an inhuman source like superman.

.

…

.

A week of decent play passed by. Neither of them did anything too extreme to the other, and they had seemed _almost_ friendly…

_Almost_ came to a screeching halt when Sakura got out of the shower bright blue.

She screamed and cursed at the top of her lunges. She looked like a god damn smurf!

Even Satan behaved while Sakura threatened to kill every single living and breathing organism on the planet. She had skipped work and spent the better part of eight hours scrubbing her body, and eventually had to give up after she finally found her creamy white skin in a few important areas. Her boobs, stomach, butt, back and legs were still blue, but at least her face, neck, forearms, hands, and feet looked normal. Thankfully it was late autumn and she wasn't going to be suffocating by wearing layers of clothes.

.

…

.

When Itachi got home that night, he wasn't very shocked to find a very pissed off Sakura sitting on the clawed up couch that had yet to be replaced. Satan was nowhere to be found.

"Hello," Itachi greeted.

"Hi," she eyed him dangerously as he made his routine trip to the kitchen.

She joined him at the island and glared at him while he made rice with steam vegetables and broiled chicken. The man ate too healthy, it was disgusting.

While he was placing the rice into the rice cooker, a distinct **SNIP** sound interrupted him. When he turned around, there stood the small Sakura, revered saint, with scissors in one hand and his pony tail in the other. It took a lot of restraint not to punch her in the face….a homicide lawyer turned murder…he could see it on the front page already.

"Oops, the blue skin dye must have messed with my brain," she said placing both items down on the stone table and walked away, swaying her hips from side to side as she entered their bedroom and slammed the door behind her.

Itachi clenched his jaw…everything he wanted to do was irrational.

.

…

.

That night was one of their worst, because of both of their nasty moods and when Sakura discovered that she glowed in the dark – all hell looked like it was going to break lose. He tugged the blanket towards him – she kicked him – he kicked her back – she tugged the blanket towards her. It was the only battle in bed between a man and a woman which didn't involve the removal of clothes and moaning. Eventually Itachi had kicked Sakura hard enough that she slid off the bed and fell to the ground.

"You fuck face!" She screamed and Satan meowed loudly in protest as he was unable to settle anywhere on the bed without being attacked by 'friendly fire.'

Itachi ignored her juvenile insult as he settled comfortably under the blanket with his back turned to her.

He heard her moving some boxes around and the next thing he heard was the loudest and fastest music that had ever graced his ears.

He sat up to see Sakura sitting as well and glaring daggers at him.

"What the hell is that!" he had to scream for her to hear him.

"Finnish heavy metal! IT HELPS ME SLEEP!" she yelled over the so called music.

Satan had left the bed and made his way into the living room. Nothing could convince him to remain in their vicinity. They were more devilish than he could ever be.

They spent the entire night glaring at each other; it turned into an unspoken staring contest which was interrupted by her kicking him and him pulling the entire blanket off her. She had attempted to slap him with a pillow which resulted in him pushing her off the bed once more. She may have had martial arts training – but that didn't change the fact that she weighed barely a hundred pounds and without his movements to compliment hers, she was in the loss when it came to brute force.

Neither got any sleep and both were ready to murder someone at work.

Sakura had spent the entire day working on a virus that would cause males reproductive organs to shrivel up and fall off.

Itachi had gotten all his criminals convicted of near sentences – even the one who had a traffic misdemeanor.

They were both pissed off.

.

...

.

When Sakura finished signing out of work, she had noticed something that she had been taking note of for the past few weeks – a man waiting outside the hospital. She had seen him far too often for it to be a coincidence. She recognized his army green cargo jacket – noting a few weeks ago that there was a rip in the shoulder of that man's jacket and wondering why he didn't get it patched up. She bit her lip as she tried to memorize everything about him but he was standing outside, away from the lights of the hospital and the contrast had turned half of his body into a gray shadow.

As she was about to leave one of the female nurses stopped her to ask her a question. While speaking to the woman about a surgery procedure that had taken place a few days ago, she interrupted the nurse's gratitude with a favor.

"Please stand there and pretend you're talking to me," Sakura asked as she reached into her bag for her makeup mirror, opened it and directed it towards her maybe stalker.

"Oh, is everything okay?"

"Fine, I just hate checking my make up alone..."

"Oh."

"Weird, I know," Sakura said as she cocked her head to the side.

He was talking on the phone, and it was becoming painfully obvious that it was about her as he kept glancing over at the female doctor. Now, Sakura was a hardass, that was obvious. But she was a hard ass to friends and people she knew wouldn't pull a gun on her. This was Konoha after all. If the news wasn't reporting half a dozen bodies found – then she knew she had the wrong channel.

Itachi might have been a cruel sadistic bastard…but he wasn't a complete psycho.

She had thanked the woman and followed her back to the nurse's station. Sakura remained there, standing inconspicuously as she dialed a number on her cell.

After five rings, it went to voicemail.

"Hey it's Naruto! In Barcelona for a competition! Remember the time zone differences! Leave a message!"

"Damnit," Sakura whispered as she closed her phone. "Hey," she addressed the nurse again.

"Yes, Doctor Haruno?"

"Is Kabuto still here?"

"No, his shifted ended a while ago. Is everything okay?"

Growling at herself internally and wondering how well she could fend off that 6'4", 200 something pound man stalking her, if he attacked her from behind. She flipped her cell phone again and went down her contact list till she reached J.

J for Jackass.

.

…

.

Itachi was finishing up his last court case for the week when his phone rang. He glanced at the caller I.D, and then did a double take, Sakura Bitch Haruno.

"Hello," he greeted carefully. He was running on zero sleep and a whole lot of anger. The Finnish Heavy Metal had given him a raging headache that an overdose of painkillers couldn't stop. If this wasn't a phone call to give him the apartment, he may just kill someone.

"Yes I know, you hate me…I hate you too – we both want to kick each other out…blah blah blah. My skins still blue and glowing in the dark…do you have any fucking idea how embarrassing that was in surgery! And your hairs still short. I know, you're going to do something terrible and unspeakable to me and that's just fine."

She was speaking so franticly that Itachi straightened up in his chair and gave her his undivided attention, "what is it?" he asked, eager for her to get to the point.

"You owe me, that time I did your forensic work for your friend…so, I'd like to call in the favor."

Itachi could have said that the favor was more for the police department than to him, but he kept that to himself, "what is the favor?"

"Can you come pick me up?"

"What?"

"Please, pick me up…that's all. Jeez, I'm not asking of anything serious. And considering all the work I had to do on your part, you walking over to the hospital and walking home with me isn't such a big deal in comparison. Hell for this itsy bitsy thing, I should still have my favor on you and –"

"Shut up, I'll be there in five minutes," Itachi replied as he hung up. He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index and thumb before sighing. At least he wouldn't owe her a favor anymore.

.

…

.

Sakura shifted her weight from side to side as she continued to check her compact mirror – the man was still there. She had seen him when she was buying Satan (the first time she noticed he was familiar because he seemed to be walking too close, and had been waiting by a corner store the entire time she was in the pet store looking for the most ill-behaved animal), when she was going to work on certain days, and she even saw him on most of her lunch break which were usually at a nearby Italian or Japanese restaurant. Now had it been in any other location that would have been fine. But in Konoha was the city that holds more than half the world's population – unless you worked with them, chances of you seeing the same person in multiple locations was slim.

"I'm here," a chilling voice spoke behind her and she jumped in surprise and turned around, obvious relief spread across her face when she saw Itachi.

"Th-thank you," Sakura offered him a polite half-hearted smile, "let's go?"

"Hn," he breathed out as she said goodbye to the nurses and they walked out the front door. She kept her eyes off her maybe-stalker, but she could still see him from her peripheral vision. He was watching them. She moved closer to Itachi.

"Why did you want me to walk you?" Itachi asked in an almost whisper. It was a chilling night and his breath created a fog around his face.

"I don't need a reason, I called in a favor right?"

"You said that it was such a small task that I should still owe you the favor."

"Well you don't, happy?"

"What is going on?" He asked, not enjoying the verbal wild goose chase.

"Nothing, I just didn't want to walk home alone."

"You could have gotten a taxi."

Sakura didn't answer for a few moments and then finally muttered; "I didn't want to walk out the hospital alone."

Something clicked with Itachi as he turned his head sideways, and placed his arm around her small shoulders and nuzzled his face into her head, catching a careful glimpse behind them. He noticed the inconspicuous man standing outside the hospital before, but hadn't identified him as someone who was troubling Sakura.

She looked up at him in slight shock when he placed his arm around her and even more when he had rubbed his face on her head.

"Wha-what the hell do you think you're doing? Are you fucking high?"

"I'm not familiar with this area," Itachi said looking straight ahead, "is there a coffee shop nearby?"

"Yeah, on East third."

"My cell is in my pocket near you, get it and put it in my hand."

"What? Why?"

"I used to be a detective for almost 10 years, if you think I can't identify a stalker then you really are as dense as you look," he answered as she placed his cell phone into the hand that was drooping on her shoulder.

He turned on the camera application and lifted his hand slightly, hitting the button on the side of his phone and it took a series of ten pictures of the man behind them when he passed under a light.

"Okay, we're going to the coffee shop, you're going take off your scarf and coat and give it to me, then you're going to go straight for the bathroom, for three minutes. Understood?"

"Yes, but what about you? You're not going to confront him, are you?"

"No, but I will get him taken care of."

"How?"

"In legal ways," Itachi answered.

Sakura nodded as she walked a bit closer to him, "thanks." At least he was acting like a decent human being.

"Favor paid," he replied simply.

They walked in silence for a few more steps, "laugh, pretend I said something funny and point in the direction of the shop," Itachi told her.

She giggled on cue as they turned the corner and she pointed at the flashing lights on the side of the street.

_The French Café _

"Okay, bathroom as soon as you go in, got it?"

"Mmm hmm," she nodded as he opened the café door for her.

She walked in and stopped near the front entrance and took off her messenger bag, scarf and purple plaid jacket. He grabbed them and she headed to the bathroom.

He opened his cell phone and dialed Kankuro, a government agent in a very high position who owed him a hell of a lot of favors.

While the phone rang he ordered two cappuccinos, and two chocolate chip muffins.

"Hey, Itachi – didn't think I'd hear from you again…ever…how's law treating you?" Kankuro picked up and spoke in Japanese.

"I need you to get rid of someone," Itachi replied in fluent Japanese.

"Done, who?"

Itachi placed his phone in front of him and clicked the send pictures button as he glanced out the window, the stalker was smoking a few feet away from the café.

"He's in Konoha city, third Avenue and ninth street in front of a French Café."

"Just got the pictures, I'll call up my puppets to take care of him, want charges on him?"

"I want to know why he's stalking a girl named Sakura Haruno and I want to make sure he doesn't find his way back here."

"No problem, any reason in particular?"

"He pissed me off."

"Hah, I remember when that would get men killed back in the day, eh?"

"Just send him to the middle of death valley."

"Hah, alright."

Itachi saw Sakura approach him with a nervous sway in her walk.

"Can you get it done in the next ten minutes?"

"Already ordered three of my men stationed in Konoha to head to the café .

"Thank you, good bye."

"Eh, you know you don't have to call me when you just want people to disappear."

"Same goes to you, I have to go now," Itachi replied as he shut off his phone and grabbed the tray from the teen barista. "Let's go sit by the window," he told to Sakura and she followed him to a four chair table.

He placed her coat and scarf on the chair between them and then settled the tray down on the cheap wooden table.

"So, how long have you know?" Itachi asked motioning to the coffee.

Sakura grabbed a cup, "Erhm…first time I saw-saw him was two weeks ago because of his jacket but…well I noticed him as someone strange when I bought Satan. But I didn't think anything of it till I started seeing him when I went to grab lunch with Shizune, she's a doctor at the hospital too. It was kind of like…coincidental, but then I decided to switch it up from the usual to something else, and I still noticed him…and the next day we went someplace downtown and I still saw him. But I never saw him at night…or well maybe I didn't notice him?" her face turned to slight annoyance.

"He won't be around much longer," Itachi said as he saw from the corner of his eyes Kankuro's legendary puppets walk down the street towards the smoking stalker.

"What did you do?"

"I'm a lawyer…whatever is in my power," he replied smoothly as he picked a piece of chocolate off his muffin.

"You were talking Japanese into the phone, and said ten minutes."

"You speak Japanese?"

"And a few others, and if I ever have to talk to the Pope I can do Latin too."

"Not bad, should have been a spy," Itachi joked half heartedly.

"You're good at changing the subject."

"It's all about rhetoric."

Sakura grabbed the muffin and cradled it in her hands, "I wouldn't have called you…you know, if I didn't think it was weird…I mean, plus I don't really know anyone else in this area except our landlord and he's a creepy, and my friend is out of the country and there's Kabuto…but he's kind of strange. I don't think he was all that happy about the cure thing."

"It's fine."

"No, I don't want you to think it was a damsel in distress moment or anything, I can totally handle myself it's just –"

"It's just this is Konoha and we have crazies who carry guns and rape, torture and murder people at random due to psychological issues. I'm a lawyer, I convict those psychos."

"Wait, you're a criminal lawyer?" Sakura asked in shock.

"What did you think I was?" Itachi asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well…I thought Iruka was the criminal lawyer."

"No, he's a detective."

"I always imagined you to be one of those finance lawyer people, you know corporations suing type deal."

"I don't like corporations, I tend to stay away from them," Itachi told her as he allowed himself a glance around the street.

The stalker was gone.

For good.

"How'd you become rich then?" Sakura asked with her eyes trained on him.

"Same way you did, family inheritance mixed with good publicity and raises…government work…things like that."

"You worked for the government?"

"I did a few cases for them," Itachi replied vaguely. The less she knew the better.

"I worked for a few governments too, although…maybe not all of it was legal," she mused.

"Not all legal?"

"I don't think I should be talking about this with a lawyer," She replied with a sideway smirk.

"Hn, was it with the United States government?"

"No…the U.S didn't like me much until last year, they revoked my passport and citizenship nine years ago."

Sakura picked up the cup and drank its liquids as both remand in relative silence till curiosity finally got the best of the Uchiha.

"Why?" Itachi asked, Shikamaru never said anything about that.

"I develop this nutrition pill…it's kind of like the ultimate everything pill. It has all the essential nutrients for those suffering from malnutrition. Like, most children in Africa's eyesight go poor during their teenage years and others suffer circulatory problems, and well…from my findings it was suppose to help prevent those problems. You know, keep them healthy. Plus when they'd eat poor meat, it would help their body digest because the chemicals were able to stay in their bloodstream for almost 4 weeks. I was so happy over it. It was my first main…solo creation. Because usually on the big things Tsunade would always be beside me, and that one was all on my own."

Itachi nodded as he listened, she really was the golden girl everyone made her out to be.

"But then when I showed the government my findings, they were eager to sell it…can you believe it? They wanted to sell it to third world countries! I mean those countries are piss poor as it is, why the hell would you want to take their money? Like why can't we just do good things because it's a good thing to do? No…so I basically took the pills – I had already mass produced a million of them, had a friend burn the notes and copies of the formula. And left on a private jet to distribute it on my own. I did well for about a year and a half on my own but I was caught in Egypt, and arrested. The U.S government wanted to put me on trial for going against my country and all this crazy international crimes shit. Before they could get the ball rolling – I had nine other governments offering me diplomatic immunity. Russia was the big one but I accepted Germany's offer first because of the whole financial situation back then. The American government couldn't touch me after that, and later on I got in touch with the Russians…and did some very unethical experiments….oh wow, crap, I ranted. Sorry."

"I didn't mind."

"I just…get passionate about things like that."

"Were you in Europe during the third Great War?" Itachi asked curiously.

"Yeah, but I didn't fight in it or stay in one area in particular. When some cities or villages got bombed or pillaged…I just went to the most extreme places to help out. What about you? Did you fight during the third?"

Itachi nodded.

"What did you do?"

Itachi paused, and was careful with his words.

"I was a sniper for the U.S, but my kill list isn't as long as others. I was good enough to be able to leave my targets alive for interrogation." He didn't tell her how much torture the interrogations he was in charge of involved. That would have certainly labeled him a monster by any normal person's standards.

"I see. So," Sakura sipped her coffee some more trying to think of a way to keep the conversation going, "who's the most twisted criminal you've ever convicted?"

"That was during my detective days."

"Who?"

"Madara."

"No last name?"

"No."

"Why him?"

Itachi sighed. He hadn't had a conversation like this in ages and it was draining. "He basically was responsible for two genocides, and was the biggest dealer in the woman and children slave trade." He deicide to disclose some more information, "I went undercover and befriended him. After I got him; I quit being a detective and went into law."

"I don't know why I never heard of him?"

"He got a silent conviction. There are certain criminals, who if we can keep under the media radar we do. If people knew of these monsters, less people would feel safe."

"How often are silent convictions done?"

"I've only been a part of three of them…not so often, but when they're done…they are done for big criminals."

"Do the criminals receive the death penalty?"

"No…not these…they have too many connections to the black market type activities, we need them for information."

"How do you know if they aren't lying?"

"I can't answer that, I don't deal with them," Itachi answered, hoping this conversation would end but even his mouth continued talking, much to his own annoyance, "My old partner does."

"What was your old partner like?"

"Like a shark," Itachi smirked crookedly, he missed his partner lately.

"Why a shark?"

"What's with the twenty questions?" Itachi countered.

"I…oh…I didn't notice. Sorry," Sakura looked almost embarrassed.

Itachi closed his eyes for a few moments before answering, "We called him a shark because of his teeth. We got into this huge brawl one day, and things got nasty…when he was getting surgery done on his mouth he said he wanted his teeth sharp – like a shark."

"That must look interesting…"

"Yeah, but it's saved his life a few times. He bit the flesh off one guys arm when he was placed into a choke lock."

"Wow," She picked a large chunk off her muffin and placed it in her mouth, "have you ever killed anyone as a detective agent man?"

Itachi stared calmly at her while trying to assess how to best answer that question since he did side work for the government while being a detective, but during the time of silence Sakura already answered it for him.

"You have, but only bad guys, right?"

He nodded.

"How many?"

"A lot."

"A lot to me is fifty. Am I close?"

"A lot more than a couple of version of your a lot."

"Oh…wow."

"Hn."

"This muffin is good," Sakura stated as she plucked another bite, "there was this old coffee shop me and my best friend Ino would go for breakfast every day. She works in my old hospital…she's nothing like me, and I have no idea how we are even able to stay friends sometimes but she's still…hmmm, a comfort, you know?"

Itachi nodded.

"Do you have anyone like that?"

"My cousin."

"What is he like?"

"Annoying."

"Did you dye his skin glow-in-the-dark-blue too?"

"No, but I did stab him in the gut with a wakazashi."

"Is he dead?" Sakura asked wide eyed, fully expecting the answer to be a yes.

"No, but I've discovered that verbal black mail works better on him than physical blows."

"Good to know. Hehe, you don't have any black mail on me."

"It's very easy to make something up."

Sakura was about to reply but a yawn cut her off.

"Let's go home, it's getting late," Itachi said as he stood up and grabbed her coat and helped her put it on. When he said, "to be safe, stay close," as they walked out, Sakura thought it was for her own protection from the stalker.

Itachi thought he was being an idiot.

.

...

.

Their walk home was pleasant and neither did anything except ask the other questions and they were both relatively honest to one another. When they got back into their apartment, Sakura went into the master bathroom for a shower and Itachi went to his office. After he sat down at his chair he found Satan glaring at him from under his desk.

He placed his forearms on the desk and began to dial Kisame. Then he heard a meow and the next thing he knew, Satan was sitting on his desk.

"Aren't you annoying," Itachi muttered as the cat sat on his paperwork in front of him.

The phone rang, the cat glared, and the water in the shower began running.

"Yo, Tachi-Tachi."

Itachi's eyebrow twitched, "Where is Madara?"

"Locked up nice n tight. We're shipping him off next week."

"Are you going through the outskirts of Konoha?"

"Yeah, it's the fastest way there."

Itachi nodded to himself as his eyes narrowed, "I wish I could just kill him." The conversation with Sakura had reminded him of memories he had been suppressing for the past three years.

"You and me both, but these god damn feds are all convinced they could get information out of him. Fucking dipshits, I wouldn't mind getting into a ring with one of them either."

"You don't care who you start the fights with half the time."

"Only half the time, the other half I can be very caring."

The lawyer smirked as he leaned back in his chair, Satan meowed and did a small circle around the desk before crouching down and lunging himself onto Itachi's chest. The Uchiha carefully caught the little beast and bared through the pain of Satan clawing the crap out of his arms.

"Is that a cat?"

"Yes."

"You hated cats."

"Still do."

"Fuck, what's happened to you?"

"Legal mishaps."

"When are you coming back to field work, honestly, anytime I deal with your kind I want to go kill some people."

"My kind?"

"Lawyers."

"I'm assuming you broke some laws during capture and interrogation?"

"They keep spouting shit about constitutional rights. Do they ever shut the hell up?"

"Only the good ones," Itachi retorted and then heard Kisame's name being called in the background.

"Speak of the devil; one of those incompetent idiots wants to talk to me. Ooooh, he looks pissed off – he's doing the stomping walk. Man he looks like a retarded penguin. Probably going to lecture me how wrong it is to bash suspect's skulls into car windows and all."

"Yes, that's very wrong…I learned that in Law 101," Itachi joked.

"He was resisting arrest…and damn I got to go, penguin man is standing in front of me and doing this weird glare…like he wishes he was Cyclopes or something. Dontcha man?"

"Bye," Itachi said breathing out a chuckle as he hung up the phone.

He looked at the cat who seemed to be enraged over his existence and Itachi carefully picked up the creature and placed him back on the desk. His left forearm was bleeding from the claw marks.

"A little devil aren't you?" Itachi muttered as he got up and pet the cat's head roughly – ignoring its protests and attempts to remove the skin from his flesh. When Itachi walked into the living room to change, he heard the bath water stop running. By the time he finished some laptop work in the kitchen and went to the bedroom, Sakura was sound asleep.

* * *

**A/N**: We got to see another side of Itachi here :), what did you think? How do you like Satan? I think he's a perfect addition to their little family ;)

Thank you for the reviews and favorites. I am extremely grateful!


	8. The next move would be a checkmate

The following day, Saturday, Itachi had work to do since crime didn't take days off. When he got into his firm's building, he went straight towards Shisui's office and his cousin looked up in shock when he heard his hand-carved rosemary door open. The last time his younger cousin visited his office was when a psycho criminal had tried to kill him. It was a time Shisui wished to forget and he hoped, as bits of those moments replayed themselves, that he wouldn't have to induce another episode of amnesia upon himself.

"So….hi," Shisui said watching Itachi close the door and sit in the overstuffed leather chair in front of his desk.

"I need you to give blood."

Shisui relaxed after hearing the odd request and then smirked playfully, "Found a vampire?"

"Get one of our forensic people to get a vile of your blood, and then give it to me."

"Itachi…I know you've done some creepy things, but are you going all Angelina Jolie with the whole necklace of your beloved ones blood?"

"No, I just need it."

"Okay…" Shisui responded carefully, the situation wasn't becoming any clearer and internally he wondered if Anko had put a hallucinogenic in his coffee again, "want me to go down to the lab now?"

"Yes."

The older Uchiha got up and loosened his tie, "want to tell me what this is about?" he asked as he followed Itachi out.

"Not particularly."

"On a scale of legal, illegal, and deathwish – which is this?"

"Between legal and misdemeanor."

"Ahhh, that's not so bad," the older one responded with a relieved sigh as he put his arm around Itachi's shoulder and slyly commented, "nice hair."

.

…

.

Sakura brushed her hair to the side as she stood in front of the plasma screen. She was looking over the distinctive features of the AIDS and HIV virus.

She muttered something to herself in a foreign language and pressed the button on the remote to increase magnification on the sample on the left screen.

"Sakura," a familiar voice called her and she turned around on the balls of her feet. She hadn't heard anyone come in.

"Itachi?" she questioned the figure in front of her who resembled the man she wouldn't mind seeing on the front page of the paper for being put away for 99 consecutive life sentences without bail. "You're not dead, or arrested…shame."

Itachi ignored her. "There was a massive computer failure in our lab," he deadpanned his lie, "I need you to run these two samples against each other."

"Umm, sure," she said placing the remote down and slowly made her way towards him. She grabbed the Ziploc bag and the document papers. She signed off on the release forums and glanced at the vile, "just compare D.N.A?"

"Yes, and record if you notice any drugs or abnormalities in either vessel," he added without a hint of interest in his voice.

"Need an identity?" She asked as she moved towards a clear glass fridge under one of the plasma screens.

"No, we know who they came from."

"You're going to owe me again," Sakura said with a devilish smirk as she walked to the back of her lab where she kept most of her analysis equipment. She settled it on the desk and began to go about doing the forensic work by her computer.

"I know," Itachi replied coolly – and that was exactly what he wanted.

.

…

.

When Sakura felt like she had spent enough time copped up in the lap, she made her way upstairs. After checking out and changing, she went to the nurses' station to double check her upcoming surgery schedule. She was surprised to see Itachi standing there talking with one of the male doctors.

She approached cautiously and asked Claire, the night shift head-nurse, about tomorrow's spinal surgery.

"Yeap, the surgery is from noon till eight – that's the time slot I believe?" the nurse asked about the time slot.

"It should take five hours, but yeah…that should be fine. Say, Claire, how long has he been there?" She pointed to Itachi.

"About half an hour, maybe?" she replied unsure.

"Thanks, have a good night."

"You too."

Sakura approached Itachi and the unfamiliar doctor as they were at the tail end of the conversation. When the medic left, Sakura looked at the lawyer curiously, "and what are you doing here? Twice in one day…quit a surprise."

"Hn," Itachi replied, "let's go."

"Did you come to pick me up?" Sakura asked, having to rush a bit to catch up with him. Damn his long legs.

"Need to make sure it was a onetime stalker and that no one important is after you."

Sakura rolled her eyes as they walked out into the chilling autumn world outside the hospital. They both walked in a fast pace and Sakura did most of the questioning. She enjoyed being on decent terms with him.

"How was your day?"

"Fine."

"What do you do on a day to day basis?"

"I get search warrants, charge criminals, prepare cases, and go to court."

"All in one day?"

"I didn't have any court meetings today, but usually yes. This city is full of criminals."

"Do you ever yell in court, like they do on T.V?"

"Only when necessary to break down the witness."

"Harsh."

Itachi didn't respond.

"Do you ever interrogate people?"

"Not often."

"Why not?"

"I am called in to witness interrogation or be briefed on them to see what action could be taken against the suspect or criminal."

"Have you ever interrogated?"

"Back in the day."

"Do you have a gun?"

"Yes."

"On you?"

"Yes," He had started wearing it again since Sakura's stalker incident.

"Really?"

Itachi glared at her threateningly.

"Wow, can I see it?"

"No."

"I won't shoot you," she said defensively.

"Hn," was his only reply.

"How many guns do you have?"

"Three."

"Where do you keep them?"

Itachi looked down at her, silent for a moment as if contemplating whether or not to answer her, "one at work, one in the office at home, and if it calls for I carry the other one."

"This is a calls-for-it moment?"

"I've seen too many victims who assumed it was just a harmless stalker end up in the Konoha River or dismembered in garbage bags."

"That…is so comforting," Sakura muttered, "and here I thought, that's what you wanted to do to me."

Itachi didn't respond and the conversation came to a screeching halt.

When they got back into the apartment, the pink haired woman turned to him as they took of their coats, "so does this mean we will be living together in a civilized manner?"

"Just because I still want to kick you out of my apartment does not mean that I have to act like an uncivilized ape," Itachi replied smoothly.

"Could have fooled me," Sakura said sarcastically as she hung her coat and walked towards the bedroom to go to the bathroom to shower.

.

…

.

The next day passed just as easily, and Itachi picked her up again.

"You haven't done anything jackassy in a while," she said as they walked across the dark deserted street, "are you sure you want to get rid of me?" she teased.

"Positive."

.

…

.

Itachi's positiveness was proven that night when Sakura screamed in horror and ran out of the shower to try to kill the bastard with her own bare hands. Instead all she found was a note on the bed that said,

"**Sorry I missed the look on your face – got called into work." **

Sakura was angry beyond belief. It took her a few years to get used to being the only person with pink hair and in junior high it became her trademark. She was fine with being distinguished out of a crowd for her pigment deficiency, and even became proud when people could always identify her.

But green hair?

How the hell was green hair suppose to work!

Pink hair was caused by her father's albino-like D.N.A and her mother's red hair…green? Green hair is as unnatural as it came. Green hair was for high school boys who listened to punk music and wore those pants with straps coming out every which way. She didn't even notice the shampoo and conditioner switch since hers was Green-tea Kiwi, imported from France.

She glared at herself in the mirror as she fisted a thick chunk of her hair and tugged it while letting out a whimper.

Green hair was not for doctors.

.

…

.

When Itachi finally got back from work, he half expected the apartment to be on fire. To his surprise, the green-haired Sakura was sleeping soundly on her side of the bed. And to his dismay, after undressing and getting into bed, he had to jump out immediately. His side of the bed was disgustingly slimly and wet.

His eyes narrowed at her sleeping form and heard Satan meow for attention. He was inches away from picking her up and dropping her ass a bath tub filled with frozen cold water. His hands were shaking with need for revenge, but as he got closer – all his morals kicked in. "Fuck," he whispered under his breath. This was getting ridiculous.

It was the third time he was unable to sleep in his own damn bed and yet again, he was unable to throw Sakura off because of the way the light hit her face. The green even looked good in that light. Not that he would ever voice that.

After a shower to get the disgusting clear slime off his skin, he went into the living room and got the remaining three hours of sleep on the clawed up couch.

.

…

.

Itachi woke up to a very unusual feeling.

He was itchy.

Not a nose itch. Or a down there itch. Or that spot on the back that no one can ever reach itch.

It was a full body itch. It was incredibly bothersome and he groaned as he shifted his weight to get up, his behind itched. When he sat up, a piece of paper fell to the ground, and his face went from annoyed to murderous.

"**Sorry I missed the look on your face – got called into work. **

**P.S: that slime that you made contact with is infected with a new string of chicken pox I made a few months back. Pretty neat, right? :)" **

If he wasn't so god damn itchy and didn't despise her very existence, he might have appreciated the creativity of her comeback.

_God damnit_, he was itchy.

He began to scratch his arm and discovered that it was filled with hives. He really had the chicken pox and the desire to scratch himself was unbearable.

There was no way he'd be able to get to work.

Getting up, and scratching his chest, stomach, arms and anything else he could get his hands on, he made his way to the bathroom to take a cold enough shower to at least numb his body…that or bring about hypothermia.

Fuck, he was itchy.

.

…

.

Shisui met his beloved for a quick lunch, and watched with joy as she made the cashier extremely uncomfortable with her version of "humor"…which in many states would be considered harassment.

"How did your court case go?" she asked grabbing her tray with a meat sub, drink, and chips and settling it on a nearby empty table.

"Fine, Itachi called in sick and I'm taking over one of his cases this afternoon," Shisui said stealing Anko's bag of chips.

"Itachi? Sick?" Anko asked as she grabbed his drink and sipped it through a straw.

"Things have been so weird that I don't know if he's an evil clone or the worlds about to end."

"Hmmm," Anko mused placing the drink down and picking up her overstuffed sub with both of her hands, "I haven't seen him in nearly a week, and our child-killers division has been stealing him."

"Everything will be ooooooh," Shisui nearly choked as he tried to take a sip of his drink. Anko had dexterously taken off her shoes and was sliding her leg up his thigh.

Damn woman.

Damn he loved her.

"Oh?" She asked wickedly as she cocked her head to the side.

"I have to be back at work in thirty minutes," Shisui growled.

"We've done it in less time," Anko countered.

"When will you marry me?"

"Someday, let's go – woman's bathroom is free," she said standing up, Shisui followed after grabbing his uneaten sandwich and took in as much of it as possible on the way for a quickie.

.

…

.

When Sakura came home from work, Itachi was sitting on the kitchen counter twitching rhythmically, trying not to scratch himself. When she got closer, the light of the kitchen showed the red soreness of his skin from all his scratching relief, and it even made her cringe.

"How was your day?" She asked sweetly as she filled a large mug with lukewarm water from the tap.

"Hn," he glared. Mentally reminding himself that punching her in the face would be wrong.

She grabbed a pill from the pocket of her cargo pants and placed it into the water, it fizzled away and the liquid turned into a murky pink.

"Here drink this; it will take away the scratchy feeling. The chicken-pox itself will go away in a couple of hours – the strain only lasts 24 hours anyway."

Itachi's eyes narrowed at her as he accepted the mug.

She sat across from him and leaned forward as she watched him drink with an unreadable expression.

"It tastes like seaweed."

"You're lucky I didn't spice it with peppers," she countered.

His face twitched into a soft smirked much to his dismay.

"So, how was your day?" she asked after he finished the medicine. For all of his jackassness, he was an interesting person. And he put bad guys away. It was just a complicated relationship they had, though it seemed to be steering into a friendlier territory.

"Ordered a new mattress," he began as he placed the empty glass down between his case files, "but spent the majority of the time trying to get Satan to skin me."

"Satan's good at clawing," Sakura remarked sweetly as she picked up the little monster from the floor and cuddled him close. He meowed in frustration and jumped out of her grip the first chance it got.

"Hn," Itachi replied as he felt a delayed chill in his body, his desire to scratch any part of his body vanished in an instance.

"So, think of your next move?"

"Next move to make you suffer?" He asked coldly.

"You say tomato; I say sadistic-bastard-get-out-of-my-apartment-or-else-I'm-going-to-make-your-life-a-living-hell," Sakura replied in one breath.

"On levels of sadism, I believe you rank highest."

"I can go higher."

"I'm sure you could – but is your defense as good as your offense?"

Her eyes narrowed as she leaned in closer, "I do believe I am winning."

He smirked defiantly and she shifted in her seat uneasily, not knowing his next course of action was unsettlingly.

"Have you ever even had a roommate?" she asked.

"My cousin stayed with me for a few nights once," Itachi replied honestly after a moment of silence. It was still really awkward talking to her.

"Shisui?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"His girlfriend had gotten very pissed off…and he took a flight to New York to avoid her."

"Did you make his life a living hell as well?"

"Making Shisui's life anything he doesn't want it to be is very difficult."

"Oh?"

"He's the type of person who turns things in his favor very quickly. Very little faze him."

"Must be nice to have that kind of attitude in life."

"Hn."

"I wonder if being carefree is as fun as it seems…" she mused in an almost whisper.

Itachi stared at her for a moment before flipping the folder of a witness file and zoned her out while reading it. The need not to itch himself was a welcoming relief.

"Nice talking to you, peace-dude!" Sakura said in the hip-lingo she had picked up from kids, "I have work to do."

A few moments after Sakura left Itachi was frozen in his place. She had just said it was nice talking to him…they had another decent conversation.

He was getting used to her.

It was disgusting.

He couldn't get close to her like that…she was annoying and immature and in HIS apartment.

He had to get rid of her. _Had to. _

The next move would be a checkmate, and end the game they were playing. Rules and morals be damned.

* * *

**A/N:** I miscalculated my traveling, and ended up not having the extra week I thought I did between flights which explains the sudden disappearance. Anyway, I'm back. Australia was beautiful and lots of fun. :D My aussie readers- cheers, you can all drink me under the table :D...

Also updates wont be as often (uni started) and next chapter (Checkmate) will be lemony-ish (so be warned). My other stories will be updated sometime later this week as well. (Looks like it may turn into weekly updates, sincerest apologies).

Hope you enjoyed it! I appreciate all the reviews so so so so much!


	9. Checkmate

**A/N:** Mature audiences only, please. Adult themes.

* * *

The next few days, Sakura was on her toes for any course of action Itachi the bastard might take to get revenge. She double checked everything before using it. Sniffing the milk, shampoo, conditioner, examining her shoes and clothes over and over…she wanted to be prepared for his revenge.

But his next tactical move – nothing could have prepared her.

When she got out of the shower – stark naked, there was Itachi clad in only black sweatpants sitting on a closed toilet bowl with his legs crossed.

"You bastard!" she screamed as she tried to cover herself up with the curtain while trying to remain imposing looking, "get out! Get out!"

"No," he replied smoothly as he watched her rush to snatch a white fluffy towel off its hanger, "this is as much as my bathroom as yours – right?"

"You pervert! What the hell do you think you're doing!" she shouted back as she glanced at the door to make her exit but Itachi was already up and walking towards her.

He never looked so tall before.

"You like control," he began.

She took a step back.

"You really like control," he said cornering her up against one of the light blue walls.

She raised her hand to slap him but he caught her small hand in his larger one.

"You like being able to protect yourself."

"I will kick your ass!" she threatened as she tried to tug her hand back but his grip was too strong. She tried to do a tai jitsu move that she was taught a few years back but apparently Itachi was expecting it and kept her wrist locked.

"Mmmm," he replied in a wicked tone that brought chills to her entire body, "I dare you," he said snatching her other hand and placing both of them above her head. Making her arms completely immobile as he held her wrists down with one of his hands.

His free hand trailed down her jaw line and neck, stopping at her collarbone, "scared?" he asked.

She brought her knee up to his ribs, but he didn't even bother to respond to her futile attempt to hurt him.

"Terrified?" he whispered leaning closer to her as his finger trailed down to the rim of her towel.

She then aimed a kick straight to his groan but he blocked it with his shin so quickly that the impact caused Sakura's own leg to give out slightly.

"You like being in control so much…" he muttered as his finger arrived between her cleavage and then lingered slightly before moving down the fabric towards her belly button, "that's your weakness isn't it?"

"I will make you regret ever being born if you don't cut this shit out," she cursed venomously. Her left leg was still twitching from the shooting pain.

"Sakura," he leaned his face inches apart from hers, "do you really think you could handle me if I'm being serious?"

He could feel her body tremble in all the mixed emotions she was experiencing.

"Honestly," he continued as he licked her lips from bottom to top and then kissed them, "do you really think that you'd have an ounce of control in this type of situation?" he whispered to her while their lips were still connected.

Then he moved his head away slowly, taking in her entire figure, trying to keep his lust and desire at bay. He only wanted to scare her. Nothing else.

"Get out and move out…because you do not want me to get serious," he warned her in his most chilling and frightening voice as he let go of her hands and turned his back on her as he walked out.

Sakura's hands fell to her side as her entire body shook. The most disturbing aspect of it all, she was completely turned on…the most obvious result of Itachi's demonstration was that she was stubborn as hell and was not going to lose.

Itachi wanted to play…

She would play.

.

…

.

When Sakura came out of the bathroom, still in only a towel, Itachi was on his side of the bed with a book resting on his chest. He didn't look up at her.

She walked towards him and grabbed the top of his book which got his attention, his almost-black eyes met with her green orbs and the fierceness of both their spirits blazed visibly.

"Yes?" he asked, his exterior remaining calm.

She tightened her grip on the book, lifted it, and threw it across the room – it landed somewhere behind her with a thud.

"Very mat –" Before he could finish, Sakura was straddling him, her lips pressed roughly against his as she placed her weight on his crotch. When she broke the messy and harsh kiss, she looked down at him with a winning expression.

"If you think I'm going to move out because you have a twisted belief you could dominate me…then you are very," she moved towards his ear and flicked it with her tongue, "mistaken."

She sat up and looked down at his frozen form, "looks like I finish on top this round."

The moment the words escaped her lips, Sakura found herself flipped over on her back with Itachi hover over her.

"This is not something you can run from," he warned her.

"This is not something you can win," she threatened back as she moved her legs above his and twisted his in such a way that she was able to roll him over on their sides, allowing her to be on top again.

"You are a very…very stupid girl," he commented at her display. If he had resisted even slightly, she might have injured herself.

"You are a very…very weak boy."

His hands rose up and tugged her towel down, showing her entire torso to him. She kept her face from blushing as she watched him examine her breasts.

She brought her hands up to her C-cup chest and squeezed them, "and very easy to entrance as well. I bet I could hypnotize you this way."

Itachi used his brute strength to push her backwards so he was on top again. Before anything could register in her mind, one of his hands was massaging her breast while the other was nibbling on her nipple roughly.

She couldn't keep a reflexive moan from escaping her lips.

Sakura pivoted her pelvis up and rubbed herself against his already hard member. She could hear him growl at the stimulation.

She was not going to be the only one to lose control.

Suddenly something clicked within the stotic male and he stopped his assault in her breast, and a faint whimper escaped her lips as she looked at him seductively – an expression neither was making with awareness.

"This needs to stop," he said as reason, logic, and some of his remaining sanity seeped back into his consciousness.

"Mmm," Sakura said cocking her head to the side, "all talk, eh? Figured as much," she taunted.

His eyes darkened as he looked down at her, "Sakura," he warned.

"Yes, yes…you're a pathetic male who is trying to intimidate me sexually and can't do shit when push comes to shove, now will you please get off me? I'd like to change into my pajamas and do some reading before bed. LeGuin came out with a new book, and I haven't gotten a chance to get to it, yet."

Yes…she was in control again.

And Itachi took it away with a single insert of a finger into her wet folds.

Every muscle in Sakura's body tightened.

"Wet, eh?" he smirked as he watched her control fad as his thumb rubbed against her clit.

She muttered something incoherently as he leaned in and began to place wet kisses on her neck, making sure to suck at the obviously visible points. He would mark her.

She was not one to be outdone that easily – no matter how good it felt, her arms had wrapped themselves around his neck and she moved his head up and pressed her wet lips against his, kissing him feverishly and demandingly, her tongue darted inside his mouth to both explore and excite him further.

A kiss had never been so arousing to him before. He pressed her clit harder, placing another finger inside her tight clamping walls because he had to keep control.

He couldn't let her regain a single moment of control – no matter how good of a kisser she was. But when she moaned inside his mouth, he had just about lost it.

Itachi had had so much sex in his lifetime that he would put the greatest womanizer to shame and James Bond, if he were real, would have tipped his hat in appreciation. When he was a detective, he'd sometimes sleep with people to get information – a week never passed where he hadn't relieved himself with at least five different girls, multiple times. But her moan…the way she arched her back, how she played with his hair…it was too much.

It was too wrong.

And the moment he had gotten too caught up in the moment, Sakura had taken the advantage to roll them over so she was on top again without ever even breaking the kiss.

She moved her body away, denying him continued access to that sweet wet flower of hers and slowly crawled backwards, her bright green eyes locked with his lust-glazed eyes.

She had tugged his pants down carefully enough to only reveal his well endowed hardened cock to the world. She admired it a moment before licking it like a melting cone of ice cream.

"Ughdh," Itachi muttered as she sucked on the tip gently, his hands were already gripping chunks of her green/pink hair subconsciously.

Then she took half his length into his mouth and the warmth of her mouth was an experience that tugged his animalistic instincts out. His insides begged him to throw away his inhibitions out the window as Sakura began to bob her head up and down while her tongue did acrobatic-like twirls.

He tugged her hair, pulling her down, making her take in the entire length of his cock.

_This is wrong_, the back of his mind whispered.

_You have to be alone forever if you don't want to suffer_, his moral yelled at him.

_You can't have a commitment_, wise words echoed.

But this wasn't a commitment, this was sex…this was a battle…this was…ecstasy.

He couldn't hold back anymore, he pushed her off him roughly, flipped her over on her back, and entered her in one fluid motion. She let out a half moan half scream and he grinded his teeth together to keep himself from making the same response.

She was so tight.

He groaned as he began to move his jumps in a slow rhythm.

"Ugh, Fuuuuuck," Sakura breathed out as she met his thrusts with her own hips.

It was a losing battle – for both of them.

He tried to keep his breathing steady and his mouth clear of moans and groans and any signs of enjoyment, but it was too hard. Having sex with her was too enjoyable…there was no mutual ground as he rotated his hips with his last thrust causing her to arch upward and scream in pure lust.

It was wrong.

But he couldn't stop, and he didn't protest when Sakura tried to roll him over, he let her rid him to her heart's content. The view of her breasts bouncing and her hips sliding up and down over his cock was pushing him closer and closer to his own release.

He grabbed her hips, and helped her speed up the rhythm and used his own hips to meet with hers. They were fucking each other senseless. There were no words – only incoherent mutters, moans, and screams. There was no sanity left.

She screamed loudly as she came closer and closer to her climax, and he forced his own release to wait for hers. Only when the inside of her walls began to spasm violently and her body collapsed over his did he allow himself a few quick rough thrusts to finish the job.

She was the Queen.

He was the King.

And they were playing off the board.

Checkmate.

* * *

**A/N:** Had some free time this morning, so I was able to update and edit since it was such a short chapter. I tried to keep this chapter not too descriptive and enjoyable to everyone.

Some of my beloved reviewers asked how often I'd be updating, and an honest answer would be: I don't know. A guess would be, at least once a week, but hopefully more. :P

Thank you so much for the reviews, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)

Plot thickens next chapter!


	10. Too late

_Itachi watched his little brother come out of one of the best private high school money could pay for, waving goodbye to his fellow classmates. Sasuke scanned the area for him and big smile appeared on his face when they made eye contact and the younger Uchiha rushed over. _

"_Hey, Itachi!" his younger brother greeted him in Italian. They hadn't seen each other for four months. _

"_Hello, how was class?" he asked back in the same language as he ruffled the shorter boy's hair. _

"_Good, everyone's preparing for graduation so no one's doing much of anything else." _

"_Mmm," Itachi nodded as they made their way across the street, "what do you want to do now?" _

"_Let's stop by a café?" Sasuke asked and his older brother nodded, "you're getting really good at speaking Italian." _

"_It's an easy language to pick up," Itachi replied. _

"_Everything's easy for you." _

"_Sometimes." _

"_Have you heard from mother or father?" _

"_Mother is currently stuck in some legislative problem with the stock market and father is in Japan trying to smooth over some diplomatic issues." _

"_How are they?" _

_Itachi raised his eyebrow at his brother, "fine, I suppose." _

_Sasuke sighed as they entered into a small corner café, and took a seat outside under a small white lace umbrella. _

_They looked over the menus in silence, and after ordering, Itachi inquired on Sasuke's disappointed face. _

"_I just hate it sometimes…the way mother and father are…the way you are." _

_Itachi placed his elbows on the table and cradled his head between his hands as he waited for his younger sibling to elaborate. _

"_I mean, does anyone in our family understand love?" _

"_Is this about your homosexuality? I told you, mother and father will be fine over it." _

"_This isn't about Naruto and I," his cheeks glowed momentarily over the mention of his lover, "this is about how…emotionless everyone is. I mean, I love it here in Italy. It's like one huge happy family. The girls cry when they're upset, the boys laugh when their happy. I mean, it doesn't have to be Italy. Last Christmas when I was with Naruto's family…it was just completely perfect. There was no proper etiquette to follow, no rules to obey, and no one to impress." _

"_I do not see the point," Itachi stated. _

"_Of course you don't….Do you think mother and father love each other?" _

"_They are married." _

"_That's not the point. It's all wrong, Itachi. It's all wrong for you too. When was the last time you got frustrated? When was the last time you had something precious to cherish?" Sasuke spoke so quickly that his words fumbled over each other. Itachi could tell this topic had injured his younger brother in some way. _

"_You're precious," Itachi decided to tease rather than address the issue. _

_Sasuke laughed under his breath as he shook his head from side to side. A waiter brought them tea with fruit tarts and three scoops of gelato for them to split. "I love you, Itachi. But I don't think you have a clue what it means to love…I don't think most people on the planet have a clue."_

"_Alright, I'll give. What do you think love is?" The older male asked as he hooked his finger into the tea cup and sipped its hot liquid. _

"_Love is…insanity. I mean, I can't stand Naruto…at all. He's an idiot, and he's immature, and he does everything wrong. But everything is so right when we're together. I don't think the idiot even realizes it but things aren't as good without him. Brother, have you ever had someone that makes your tea taste better, your sweets sweeter, you're life go righter? It's amazing." _

"_Then I look forward to meet your Naruto, you RSVP'd to mother's thanksgiving invitation, right?" _

"_Yeah…isn't it great…RSVP for thanksgiving with the family and business associates…" _

"_I don't understand your gloominess over the matter." _

"_One day, you'll understand. When you end up holding your lover in your arms and everything in the world stops making sense but somehow you'll feel complete. You'll understand me and hate RSVP'ing for family events too." _

"_Aren't you acting almighty and wise," Itachi chuckled as he forked a piece of his fruit tart off. _

"_In love and emotions – I think I know more than anyone else in our family and it just pisses me of that…our family is so…anal." _

"_My opinion on the matter is that you're looking too deeply. You're poetizing life…and it's not all that splendid. War is going to be breaking out soon…everyone's on the edge; there are murderers and psychopaths around every corner. Love will not save you from those people." _

"_Maybe, maybe not…but when I die, at least I know that there is someone out there whose life will fall apart without me." _

.

…

.

Itachi woke up to a blob of faded green/pink hair on his chest. It took him a moment to recall the night before and another moment to remember his dream of a distant memory…when he, himself, was barely in his twenties, and his younger brother was about to graduate high school.

Having the dream felt like a bad omen.

Being comfortable with her draped across his chest felt like sin.

Getting away from the situation felt like death.

It was all wrong.

Then suddenly enough, she stirred, and slowly lifted her head from his chest – he closed his eyes to feign sleep for a reason he couldn't understand. It was cowardly and he knew it.

"Shit," she hissed as she retreated to her side of the bed.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," she continued her onslaught of repetitive curses.

Itachi wasn't sure what tone he detected in her voice – surprise? Regret? Shame?

Just as quickly as she left his chest, a feeling overcame Itachi – a desire to tug her back, to hug her and tell her everything would be okay. It was insanity. It was wrong. He did not like her. He was just in desperate need for bodily contact. That was all.

This was a battle. It was war since she had signed those lease papers.

He wanted the apartment to himself, he needed his space. He liked being alone.

Then why did alone feel so cold?

.

…

.

Sakura sat with the sheets barely covering her body as she kept stealing glances at Itachi. Why did she feel like her world was crashing down on her?

They weren't supposed to have sex.

She wasn't supposed to enjoying have sex with him.

And she definitely wasn't supposed to want to have more sex with him AGAIN.

"Idiot," she muttered to herself while face palming her forehead over and over. She wished she would have had a hangover at least…to do something like that _sober_ was just shameful.

It was a game they were playing, a very _very_ dangerous game and she was getting attached. Too attached, too close…too much….too….it was too excessive in everything. She hated him but wanted to kiss him. She couldn't stand him but wanted to caress his face. She thought he was the worst man on the planet but she wanted to stay by his side for just a little bit longer.

"Shit….so stupid," she hissed again.

She was a medical doctor; she was one of the best in her professions. She did not need herself falling over some psycho lawyer. Everything bad that Itachi had done to her – the sex wasn't amazing enough to make up for it.

No, she reassured herself.

The sex was bad.

She didn't enjoy his kiss.

He wasn't any good for her.

She continued to chant those beliefs silently, but somehow they didn't reach where they needed to go and as she stole another glance at him…she knew she was doomed when she wanted to cuddle back into his warmth. She hadn't been in a relationship in 8 years, and her closest male friend was gay. The last time she had sex…she shuddered at the memory.

_Stop it! _

The jackass that spiced her tea, that threw her undergarments all over the city, that made her hair an ugly green…that man who picked her up from work…who made her feel safe…who got rid of the stalker who made her uncomfortable…whose kisses tasted like sweet rum…that man whose touches felt like electric sparks shooting all over her body…

That devil.

That bastard.

It was bad, it was wrong…it was everything but sane. She brought her knees closer to her chest. What was she going to do?

How could she continue living with someone she was supposed to want to kick out when she didn't want him to leave at all?

Itachi's body shifted and Sakura glanced over.

Ivy green met coal black.

She gulped, he glared.

He was not her perfect man. She shouldn't fall for him. She was going to tell him that he won. She knew better.

He won and she was going to move out. Go far away.

She still had her German passport, she was sure they would let her go and work on the AIDs HIV virus. She didn't mind breaking her contract with Konoha, just so long as she could save her heart from breaking because of Itachi.

She opened her mouth to tell him.

_You won, congrats, I'm moving out._

She searched his face for any hint that he might ask her to stay. Of course, there was none. He wanted her gone. He wasn't an idiot. He wasn't falling for her.

"So, I've decided that –," before she could make her declaration of defeat, her beeper went off with the emergency ring.

"Fuck," she cursed as she got up – naked and nothing covering her body. She didn't care that Itachi's eyes were still on her. She didn't see how he admired every single one of her curves, and how his eyes stayed trained on her face trying to determine her emotions. She missed the hint of care in his eyes because she wasn't looking for it.

She was looking for her scrubs.

"What have you decided?" He asked as she found two matching pieces in purple and began putting them on over her naked form.

"I've decided –," once again the hospital ring of her beeper went off. She bent over and picked it up and looked at the message, "oh my god. There was a thirty-five car-pileup on the Konoha express way."

Itachi remained expressionless. What the hell had she decided on?

"Oh, god this is terrible," she continued as she snatched her bag and rushed out.

Just like that.

She was gone.

And hadn't told him what the hell she decided on.

Itachi felt so confused and annoyed and frustrated…and just blatantly pissed off. Not at Sakura…no…at life. Because it wasn't making sense anymore.

Where was logic?

Where was reason?

Where the fuck was his sanity hiding?

The yearning for Sakura and her body should be illegal, his aggravated mind deduced. He was being an idiot.

He needed to get away.

Far away.

Let her have the apartment for a week…a month…a year…he needed to get his mind together, then he'd know what to do.

How to handle her.

How to get rid of her.

How to return his life back to normalcy.

.

…

.

Sakura dashed across the emergency room, she had just finished her third surgery of the day, and still patients who required immediate attention were being brought in. She had to change her scrubs for the fourth time, because the others were drenched in blood.

"Claire," she greeted the fatigued nurse who nodded solemnly.

"He just came in, federal I.D, I think he was shot," she handed her the man's chart and she looked it over. She flipped to the next page and increased her pace to catch up with the man's moving cart.

"Crap," Sakura breathed out, "We need to get the bullet out immediately!" Sakura yelled as her team of doctors rolled the man, whose skin looked sickly blue, through the double doors straight into surgery.

She gave the chart back to Claire and rushed after her new patient.

.

…

.

After nearly thirty hours of nonstop work, Sakura contemplated going down to her lab and shooting up her insomnia concoction. But dismissed the thought, she had another hour before she was dismissed and she had eaten a can of nutella – which provided her enough calories and sugar to last the week. The crisis situation was over. Everyone who was brought in was either stabilized or dead.

She walked into the room of another patient; the one was a bullet wound. He was stirring into consciousness when she picked up his chart to make a progress report.

"Good afternoon," she greeted him as she clicked her pen against the board and began to write down what the machines in front of her dictated about his condition.

"What? Where?" the man began in a deep growling voice as his small eyes darted left and right.

"There was an accident on the Konoha freeway, on the outskirts of town. You were brought in here with a bullet wound. Relax. You're safe," Sakura stated as she was about to sign off on him.

"What!" the man screamed, as he shot up – all his vitals went through the roof in panic.

"Calm down! Calm down!" Sakura screamed dropping the clipboard to the floor as she tried to restrain him. He was nearly three times her height and weight.

"No! Itachi! Where's Itachi?" He shouted – his razor sharp teeth terrifying the doctor.

"What? Itachi? Oh my god, your teeth– his old partner right?" Sakura asked as he glared at her viciously.

"You have to tell him to get out of the country…please. Now. Now," Kisame said in an inhuman panic.

"I'll call him right now," Sakura reassured, "please, lay down, you're going to reopen your wounds."

"You have to do it before it's too late," Kisame said following her directions. The pain was shooting up his spine but he was doing his best to ignore him. He had made a personal promise to Itachi years ago, he couldn't break it.

"I will, please – lay the hell down before I knock you unconscious," Sakura reassured him as she picked his the clipboard up off the floor and rushed out to make a phone call at the nurses' station.

The most cold, wicked, horrifyingly chilling voice spoke from behind her when she picked up the phone, "Too late."

And to Sakura…everything went black.

* * *

**A/N**: Dum...Dum...Dum!

Review please and thank you!


	11. You're waiting for my call?

Itachi finished his conversation with the British embassy, they had some legal work that needed looking into and it was the perfect excuse to get the hell out. He knew that international law degree wasn't a waste after all.

He had already arranged a private jet and had finished packing what he would need for his travels. Instead of remaining in Konoha, he had gone to Suna – a city a few hundred miles away and stayed at a hotel.

The Uchiha had convinced himself that he was feeling better already; that Sakura was just an annoying nuisance and he had a career and life to concentrate on. He had work to do, not games to play.

His phone rang as the limo pulled up to the airport, it was Kankuro.

"Yes?" he answered, he was almost willing to take on an erasing job for him...anything to be wracked with thoughts of something else.

"Itachi, are you okay?" Kankuro asked nervously on the other line.

"What? Why?" Itachi asked as his body stiffened and his eyes narrowed. His chauffeur opened the door and waited for the lawyer to step out, but he never did.

"The man, who you asked for us to get rid of. What the fuck were you thinking!"

"What are you talking about?" Itachi snarled back venomously. He did not do well with others raising their voice at him, especially with the thin line of patience he was running on.

"That was Tobi – Madara's right hand man! Shit, it took us forever to figure it out…but honestly Itachi, where do you go off having me –," the line went dead.

He was calling Sakura.

No answer.

Then he called his brother.

"Hello?" A tired Sasuke answered.

"Are you alright?"

"Wha? Itachi? It's 3 in the morning…I'm in Spain….go away," his younger brother hung up on him, obviously not appreciating the lack of consideration of time differences.

Then he called Kisame, but he didn't expect an answer. During transport missions – outside contact was prohibited.

He called the hospital, and a nurse picked up and said that she was in surgery. Everything was okay.

But he couldn't' leave. Not now. He had to go back. Had to make sure Sakura was okay. When Madara was involved - no one around him was ever going to be safe.

He quickly went about the procedures to change his flight route from Britain to Konoha. The flight would take less than half an hour, but with traffic and delays, he could see it taking over an hour to reach her.

Everything would be okay. He only had to go back to make sure Sakura didn't get mixed up in his past and maybe offer her a week trip to the Caribbean or something. It wasn't a past that even his worst enemy deserved to be a part of.

.

…

.

Itachi rushed through the hospital doors and directly towards the reception desk.

"Where is Sakura Haruno?" He asked demandingly.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" the woman asked startled by his question. He had never seen her before, and she apparently had no idea who he was.

He pulled out his old (expired) detective badge he kept for emergency situations.

"Uh, okay, ummm…she's a patient?"

This was ridiculous.

"Doctor, she's a doctor, you incompetent invalid," he corrected with annoyance.

"What is going on?" a nurse asked stepping behind the new girl.

"Claire, where is Sakura?" Itachi asked, while trying to calm his nerves.

"Last I saw her, she was checking up on patients, move aside, Matty," she said taking the seat of the new receptionist, "I bet she already left…she was so worn out…okay, it says here that she checked up on eight patients and signed off on seven of them…hmmm, it says Kisame Harushimi wasn't signed off on, she might –,"

"What room is he?"

This was wrong.

This was bad.

He had to fix it.

"Uh….212," she said and Itachi was already halfway across the hall. Claire was too overworked to yell at the lawyer about running in the halls, or the fact that that area was restricted to family and medical personnel only.

.

…

.

"Kisame!" Itachi rushed towards his old partner who was all bruised and bandaged up.

"Itachi! Man, thank god you're okay," the big man said sitting up quickly, but squinted from the pain and slowly lowered himself.

"Where's Sakura?"

"Who?"

"The doctor…with the pink hair…and green…and green eyes..."

"I asked her to call you, like fifteen minutes ago."

Itachi grabbed his phone and looked through his call records. Even if he was flying he would have had a message since all calls were redirected to the plane's line.

Then his cell began to ring.

**Restricted**.

He moved away from Kisame, raising a finger to excuse himself, and picked it up with his back turned.

"Itachi Uchiha speaking."

"Itachi…haha, You sound the same…did you know that? Ten years, and you still sound the same. Have you even agggggged?"

"Madara…"

"And you remember me! Do I sound the same? Eh?"

"I will kill you if –,"

"If what? Huh? Empty threats coming from you…I was thinking about going after your brother…that would have been fun…but when I found out that there was a woman…a woman in your life! Hah! Can you believe that? She's quit a beauty too. I remember when you promised me that if I ever got out there wouldn't be a woman in your life for me to go after…hah, don't you know it's bad to lie?"

"You lay a hand on her and I swear –,"

The line went dead.

"FUCK!" Itachi yelled squeezing the phone, restraining himself from throwing it against the wall. He did not like this situation at all.

.

…

.

He was preparing to call in every single god damn favor everyone on the planet owed him, but then he received a text message.

"Involve any of the authority, and she will die…painfully. Screaming. Crying. Begging. And I'll make sure to record it for you. Ta-ta."

.

…

.

Kisame shifted his weight as he tried to sit up, "Itachi, Itachi, are you okay, man?"

When his old partner turned around…it brought chills to the shark-like man. His partner's eyes were a dangerous deep red. His face looked the same when he found him cowering over Madara ten years ago, hitting the criminal over and over wildly…madly. Blood everywhere….Itachi had snapped…It was a day no one talked about.

"Itachi, what happened?"

"Don't tell anything to the authorities," Itachi replied calmly as he walked out.

He knew Madara…he knew him well.

And he knew what the twisted psycho wanted more than anything.

.

…

.

Sakura woke up, dizzy and confused, and took a moment to get herself together. She looked around, trying to take in the details of her surroundings. She was in some sort of warehouse and with the rays of light coming in from the dirty windows she could tell that it was afternoon. Everything else was beyond her. Her sense of smell was weakened and it burned to breath from her nose, so she resorted to inhaling from her mouth.

"Hello there, beautiful," a happy looking person jumped in front of her.

Sakura was taken back and let out a little squeak of surprise. She had no idea how she missed that…thing.

The man had short wild greasy black hair, he had a tall and slender frame, and his face…his face was insane. The way his eyes were permanently widened and how his smile twisted out too far…it was like looking at a clown. A demented clown. It seemed batman was missing his Joker.

"What the hell is going on?" Sakura asked trying to assess the amount of danger she was in. She couldn't even recall how she had gotten there.

Suddenly, at an unimaginable speed, his hand was on her chin and he was tipping her head back – his face inches away from hers.

"You know…Itachi doesn't have bad tastes…I bet you'd sell for a good chunk of change."

"Wh-what? Get off me you creep," Sakura said trying to move back but his thumb and index finger gripped her chin so hard that the pain kept her in place.

"Oh, a back talker…hehe, no wonder Itachi sounded worried. Women who wouldn't bend easily…would be broken…isn't that cute. Oh, I can't wait to seeeeeeeee him!"

Sakura ignored the pressure point he had on her and gave him the strongest jab punch she had ever given anyone. It caused him to let go of her, grip his nose, and stumble back. She used the momentary freedom to run, but when she went on her legs, and prepared to run she was shocked backwards.

She had on a metal collar that she hadn't noticed before. Sakura began coughing and choking, the force she used to run, had repelled her backwards by the throat. She was chained to a poll, like a dog.

The psycho was back in front of her, his nose bleeding profusely as his eyes seemed to change to a maddening bright red color. "Oh, oh, ho! I'm going to have fun with youuuuuuuuuu!" he yelled with a crackled laugh as his leg connected with Sakura's rib cage, tossing her backwards nearly three meters.

"Fun! Fun! Fun! Hehehehehehehehehe!"

.

…

.

"Itachi…" John Cohen, the maximum security prison guard began as he led him down the hall, "are you…I mean, I know…I just, is this legal?"

"Don't ask questions, which answers might turn you into an accomplice," Itachi replied as his rubbed his cell phone with his fingers. Waiting for it to ring.

Waiting for the psycho to ask for him.

Waiting…that never worked well with Itachi.

"I just…why would you want to talk to the man that you locked up 12 years ago?"

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Itachi asked in such a way that John gulped and averted his gaze to the floor.

.

…

.

Itachi entered the room where a red head sat, glaring dangerously at Itachi as he approached the criminal in the orange jump suit.

"Sasori," the lawyer greeted in the isolated brick quarters.

"Itachi," the man replied in the same calm tone.

"Please, leave us," Itachi instructed the guards who were standing watch by the door.

"Sir, we are ordered to remain."

"And by my authority as an Uchiha, I order you to leave," Itachi replied smoothly as he sat across from Sasori.

The men exchanged a glance and looked back at Itachi with a nod. They left the unservalance room without resistance.

"What do I owe for this gracious visit?" Sasori asked calmly as he intertwined his fingers.

"Would you like your freedom?" Itachi asked calmly.

"Freedom? Now that is a word I didn't believe I would ever use again."

"I am here to make an offer."

"To string me along…ahhhh, who's the puppet and who's the puppeteer in this deal?" Sasori asked wisely.

"You agree to do something for me…I get you out of here…after you do it, you will never see the inside of a jail cell unless you get caught."

"Get caught? So you will play cat and mouse with me again?"

"I will never go after you again as long as you stay away from me."

"Oh…hmmmm, you were the only one I've ever encountered smart enough to catch me," Sasori began as he pondered over the offer, "what is it…which you wish for me to do?"

"What your best at."

"Who am I doing it for?"

"Me."

"Yes…you, and which militia?"

"Just me."

"Oh, my…a personal favor. This can't be legal, can it?"

"Does that bother you?"

"No…not at all…I am actually enjoying it…very much so. What propelled this…desire of yours to use me for your own benefit?"

"Something of mine was stolen, and I plan to kill the thief."

"Itachi, my friend, you have a deal," the red head cocked his head to the side with a friendly smile that was unbecoming. Itachi remained unreadable and expressionless.

"A guard with gel spiky hair and a birthmark on his chin will lead you back – he'll give you a change of clothes, I'll be waiting a mile off the penitentiary, can you manage?"

"Aren't you scared I'll run?"

"Do you think I can't catch you again?" Itachi countered with a silent threat of torture intertwined in his words.

"Tis fair, all is fair. You know I am a man of my word, I will do your favor and you grant me my illegal freedom…what a splendid situation."

"You have an hour – don't be late," Itachi said getting up.

"I am never late."

.

…

.

The phone rang the next day while Itachi was cleaning out his McMillan M88 sniper rifle.

"Madara," Itachi greeted angrily.

"Oh, Itachi," the man on the other line sniffed, "it makes me so happy…the anger in your voice…sweetness."

"I do not want to play games," he warned.

"Oh, you want to or not…you will. This little slut of yours punched me…I think she broke my nose."

Itachi would have been proud of Sakura's attempt to fight back, if he didn't remember what Madara did to woman and children who misbehaved.

"I want to talk to her," Itachi said calmly as he threw his cleaning cloth across the living room in anger.

"Can you believe, hours and hours of play…and not once did she beg for me to stop…only insults came from her. I don't think I can sell her anymore."

"I want to talk to her," Itachi growled lowly.

"Oh, I know…I know. But, Itachi – I think what I want is more important, ne?"

"Let. Me. Talk. To. Her."

"Hehehe, you really like her don't you? I never thought the great Itachi could have compassion! Can you believe it! Oh, how we all change. Ten years seemed to have softened you up quite a bit. But it hasn't softened me," he heard a thump and a feminine groan, "not at all! I am worse than before…much worse, because now I know you…and I know what you want, her right? RIGHT!"

He heard a gargling noise and coughing coming from someone else.

"Come on, you slut, say something, Itachi-dearest wants to speak with you."

Itachi's vision blurred with undeniable rage.

"F-f-f-eed Sa-a-tittita-n," Sakura muttered before he heard another thud.

"Feed Satan?" Madara questioned, "is that a little code you and your girlfriend made up?"

"Heh," Itachi smirked, the bastard hadn't broken Sakura in the least, "no, she wants me to feed the cat, Satan. She thinks that I'd get rid of it when she's not around."

"How cute! You two have a cat! Awwww, this new Itachi…I don't think I like him much. I miss the old Itachi…no, no. I miss the real Itachi. Do you remember it? Do you? The children screaming! Those woman, all begging for help? Oh don't worry. I'll make your little Sakura here beg as well."

Click.

.

…

.

Two days later:

Itachi picked up the phone on the first ring.

"How sweet, you're waiting for my call?"

"Hn."

"Oh, that tone…I remember it. Can't stay normal for long without her? Tell me, have you even slept?"

Itachi remained silent.

"Fine, don't talk…want to hear something interesting…I told your little whore what I was going to do to you, and she told me that if I hurt you she'll kick my ass…now let me tell you, she's in no position to do any ass kicking. I'm not sure if her leg is broken or not…it's all twisted and disgusting. She looks pretty ugly right now too. Not the trophy wife she was before, let me tell you that."

Itachi didn't take the bait.

"Ahhh, I see how it is…hehe, when I asked her about how…how much she loves you…you should have heard all the names she called you. I do believe she used jackass and fuck face in a number of the most imaginative ways. You threw out her underwear, eh? Now that wasn't that nice."

Itachi tried to steady his breathing.

"Hehe, I think I've gotten out enough of my aggression out on your little lady. It's your turn now…come alone, feel free to bring guns, swords, whatever the hell else you want. If you bring the Feds, she will die. And not a pleasant death. Maybe I'll slice her fingers off first…then –"

"Where?"

"Oh, don't interrupt; don't you want to know the consequences of not listening to me?"

"Not interested."

"Heh, thirty minutes…the warehouse in eighty-ninth, near the river named after your daddy dearest – Fugaku, right?"

Click. Itachi hung up first.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope you are enjoying yourselves! Please don't forget to leave a review :), they are the most encouraging thing ever to updating quickly.

Edited some errors. Sincerest apologies.


	12. I'd like to be the one to kick you out

Madara looked down at the woman who he had made into a punching bag in the past few days; laying in a puddle of her own blood. Her body temperature had been dropping drastically, it was obvious that she was going to die soon and even though he wanted to play some more – he needed her alive to torture Itachi with.

"He's coming, soon," Madara said as he lifted her up by the hair. Sakura's face was swollen so much that her blotchy eyes were closed shut, "I don't think he'll like the way you look…it's very….ugly. Filthy. He never did like the woman I made filthy."

She responded with a gargling sound and he tossed her down. She hadn't been able to say anything for the past twenty hours.

"Oh, happy days! Finally, Itachi….hahahahahaha. You put an end to my happiness, I will put an end to yours. Ten years," he turned back to the dyeing girl, "ten years he locked me up! Can you believe the injustice? I provide entertainment for the rich, and I gave a meaningful life to so many meaningless souls. Now you…if you hadn't punched me…you would have been fetched up for a lovely price and we'd all be happy. But no…you had to be a little bitch…but no matter. You'll be worthless soon, once Itachi comes…oh to see him suffer. I will make him suffer. Suffer. Suffer. Suffer! NO ONE BETRAYS ME AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" A maniacal laughter echoed throughout the abandoned warehouse.

.

…

.

Madara heard the echoes of approaching footsteps. He tossed his crossword puzzle down to the floor and grabbed the hand gun from his pocket and directed him to the lump of flesh lying against the empty wooden box he was sitting on.

"Itachi! Itachi!" Madara greeted him and it filled him with glee to see how distorted Itachi's face became when he saw the doctor.

"Greetings, bastard," Itachi snarled.

"Me? Bastard? No, no, no. My pops is still alive…somewhere," Madara replied with a wicked smirk, "so how are you?"

"Let her go."

"Let her go? You only want me to let her go? What about those other woman? Mmmm? Didn't want me to let them go did you?"

"Let. Her. Go." Itachi pulled out a police issued gun and pointed it at Madara.

"Oh, you shot me, I shot her…you're left alllllllll alone…you lose."

"What do you want?" Itachi asked, his hand wavering in his hold of the gun.

"Just talk…we never got a chance to talk. You were so busy trying to kill me…never talked before. I just want to talk. That's all. Tell me, how did it feel…being my partner?"

"I wasn't your partner, I was undercover."

"No…no. That's not true. You were my partner. You helped me, you helped me do all those dirty things you hate me for doing. You were just like me aren't you? And you are just like me, now…Yes. Yes. You are."

Itachi stayed silent; his eyes remained focused and trained on his target as his finger pulsed and begged to pull the trigger.

"Hehehe, you know. When Tobi told me that he discovered that you were living with another woman…I didn't believe it. You? Committed to another person? That couldn't be. Because you were just like me. Isn't that right? If you weren't like me…you'd have come with feds, right?"

Itachi's eyes narrowed even more and his brows furrowed, it looked as if he was holding his breath.

"You like to get the job done. At all costs. No matter the sacrifice, right? Hahahaha, and look at you now, you don't want to make the sacrifice of this thing? She's better off dead now, anyway. If you really were different from me. If you really were fighting for good and justice and peace and all that shit, you'd have come here with a platoon of military men. You'd have done anything to put me back in the prison. But you haven't. You came alone….in what? Hopes that you could save her and kill me? HAH! You don't want to save her. You wanted to talk to me too; something pulls you in to me. You want to understand me, hahahaha YOU -," Madara's body went limp and he fell over the box cartoon to the floor.

The man Madara was talking to smiled in a way Itachi never would, "and this is it?" his voice changed to that of Sasori as he looked up at the second level of the warehouse where the real Itachi was positioned with a sniper rifle.

"Yes," Itachi replied Jumping over the railing and rushing down the metal stairs, "the ambulance and feds will be here in two minutes. I suggest you leave."

"Hmmm, so she's special to you?" Sasorai asked tugging off the fake black wig.

"Yes," Itachi admitted as he grabbed her weakened body and pulled her up in his arms, "you okay?" he whispered but only got a found indistinguishable noises from her throat as a response.

"I'm happy for you, Itachi," Sasori said, "maybe I'll go become a police officer, how does that sound?"

"Do whatever you want," he replied as he cradled her body close to him, hoping to give off some of his body heat.

"Heh," Sasori smirked as her turned around, "look for me on the T.V, will you?"

.

…

.

Sakura woke up to the sound of beeping, the smell of sterilized hospital equipment, and the feeling of warmth in her hand and by her toes.

"Hey," Itachi whispered.

Sakura inhaled and blinked at him. She had a lung tube in her mouth and wasn't able to talk.

Itachi called in the doctor after a few moments of exchanged silence. One entered to examine her and while writing down information on her chart, he told her prognosis with a bunch of medical terms that Sakura didn't really care about. She was more grateful when he removed the tube and allowed her to breathe on her own.

The entire time, Itachi had held her hand tightly.

"D-did you fee-feed Satan?" Sakura asked trying to clear her throat from the dryness.

"Yes, he hasn't moved from your feet since Shisui brought him here, nurses threw a fit over him…but a generous hospital grant has kept them quiet for the past few days."

"Yo-you st-stayed?"

"Yes, I'll go get you some water," Itachi said letting go of her hand and walking out.

She had been in constant surgery for almost two weeks, and then in an induced coma for another week. This month had official constituted as the worst month of his life. He finally understood Sasuke's words. When Sakura was gone, life wasn't right. Their apartment didn't look the same. Nothing tasted right. The air felt suffocating. And really – who the fuck RSVP's for a family dinner?

Then, when she opened her eyes to reveal bright ivory green orbs, everything was right again. He could breathe better.

It was so wrong.

So so so wrong.

But it didn't matter anymore.

He came back into the room with a glass of water and assisted in helping Sakura take small sips of it.

"What do you remember?" he asked after he settled the half empty cup on the stand beside her hospital issued bed.

"Some psycho…tell me he's locked up, please."

"He's dead."

"Good, he was…so….twisted. I was so pissed off at you."

"I'm sorry," Itachi apologized sincerely for the first time in his life.

"Oh, you better be. You ever associate yourself with a nut job like that again, and I will do more than give you the chicken pox."

Itachi tightened his lips, trying to keep the smirk from appearing which only made his face look more serious.

Sakura sighed and moved her head away from him, "Doctor said I might not be able to perform surgery anymore," she said in a half whisper.

"I have the best doctors in the world looking after you – including that woman; Tsunade flew in for your surgery."

"Where is she?"

"She had gone back to her hotel a few hours ago. I can call her right now if you want."

"Ahhh, no it's okay…so…" she looked down at her empty hand, "can I call in a favor?"

Itachi looked down at her and nodded. Sakura took a inhaled deeply, and exhaled the words she wanted to say.

"You're not allowed to move out until I drive you to it, deal?"

Disbelief was an understatement.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh please, you're a complete dumbass…and blaming yourself for that psycho – right? That's psychology 101 right there…Well boo-who. I'm alive. Get over it. Besides, if you move out now then that means Madara won and that's not alright by me. I'd like to be the one to kick you out. Fair and square."

"You are out of your mind," Itachi said, he had already bought an apartment back in Britain. He had planned to leave when Sakura was released from the hospital. He couldn't bring himself to remain near her, knowing what could happen again by the hands of another psycho who'd get free in the future.

"Excuse you; I do believe you owe me a favor," she said reminding him of the last vile of blood he had her examine.

"I'm going to have to pass on this one."

"I have met plenty of insane and unstable idiots in my time…spent lots of time alone in a cell with them…and you know what – I didn't run away. Man up, grow some balls, and stay in the apartment till I de-masculinzie you myself."

Silence passed between the two of them as both glared at each other stubbornly.

"Sakura, you don't understand the situation full –,"

"Fully? Yes I do. I was in there with that man-thing, you know. So what if it can happen again? I can get hit by a bus when crossing the street – that doesn't mean I'll stop crossing the street just because there is a chance. You still owe me a favor, you jackass."

"Listen, everything has happened so fast and–,"

"And what? You're going to get all sappy emotional on me? I'm the one in the hospital bed, thank you very much. I do believe I deserve at least a 95 percent say in what's going to happen next."

"Fine," Itachi said coldly, he was at a complete loss of what else to say. Apparently Madara's beatings did nothing to that thick head of hers.

"Good, now I was thinking about getting a water bed, what do you think?" Sakura asked lightly with a half smile. She never wanted to talk about Madara again….ever. She wanted to lock up those memories somewhere where they could never haunt her or him ever again.

"Go for it, you can clean it up after Satan gets his claws on it."

"Damn, good point. What about changing everything to a Hawaiian theme?"

"I will throw any and all furniture you buy out the window."

"Hah, I'm buying the Venus De Milo then, love to see you toss that thing out," she replied with an evil smirk.

"That is not furniture."

"I can use it as a coat rack."

"Only you….," Itachi said shaking his head from side to side with a half smile on his face.

* * *

**A/N:** "Technically" the story is complete, but there will be another chapter - hopefully updated tomorrow, that will bring everything together. :)

I hope you have enjoyed, and had a fun read with this. Thank you for the support, encouragement and reviews. Cheers everyone. I love you guys.


	13. The End

**1 year later:**

Sakura sat at the restaurant that Itachi was supposed to meet her in. They had lunch together every day they were able to at various restaurants all over the city. Somehow Itachi always managed to have reservations to any place she wanted to go to, even if they were supposedly booked up for months.

She carefully brushed her bangs out of her eyes as she looked around, hoping to spot the late jerk. Although there were plenty of men in suits – her suit was still not there. The doctor checked her watch, he'd had her waiting eight minutes already…and she was five minutes late. Itachi was the anal, always on time, perfect man. She let out a sigh as she reached into her bag with her good arm and got out the recent copy of Harvard Medical and then sank into her seat while reading through the pages. Her left arm was permanently damaged from the Madara incident, and she since she refused amputation and prosthetics she just manages without the ability of raising her arm above her shoulder or lifting anything over ten pounds. Thankfully, the disability didn't hinder her performance in surgery.

A waiter walked by her seat near the window and poured her favorite red wine into the glass as she continued to read the article about her recent contributions. She muttered a thank you as she flipped to the next page.

They were talking about how much progress she was making in the field of AIDs and HIV, and it agitated Sakura that she had yet to find a cure to the damn disease.

A seat pulled up across from her and she said, "You're late," before closing the medical journal and looking up.

"Hello to you too," Itachi said sitting down and raising two fingers to call the waiter over.

"I saw the transcript for yesterday's case," Sakura said as she watched the waiter pour Itachi his favorite white wine.

"She'll have the salmon and I'll have the steak – medium rare," Itachi said grabbing both her and his menus and handing them to the waiter.

"Yes, sir, right away."

"What if I didn't want the salmon?" Sakura said grabbing a biscut from the bread basket.

"It's Wednesday. So, what did you think of the case?"

"You're a heartless bastard for making that little boy cry."

"Hn," Itachi responded as Sakura handed him half her biscuit and he accepted.

"But it was nice; I seriously think Dick Wolf should just cast you on Law and Order."

"Heh," Itachi was always so amused by whatever came out of her mouth.

"So why were you late?" Sakura asked crossing her hands across her chest in visible agitation, "Don't you know it's rude to keep a lady waiting?"

"I needed one of my old cases, so I had to go back home."

The doctor froze.

"And you wouldn't believe who I saw when I went into the apartment…"

"Who?" Sakura asked innocently.

"Painters, and imagine my utter shock when our bathroom smelled of paint fumes."

"Oh my," Sakura continued the act as she bit her lip, trying to keep her smile off her face.

"Really, Sakura. I'd have thought you'd mature a little."

"I thought it gave the bathroom a nice touch," she countered.

"Hardly, and did you have to have it done in graffiti?"

"I thought it was hip, and gave the phrase 'Sakura owns Itachi' and 'Sakura kicks Itachi's ass' a little of an edge."

"Don't forget 'Sakura dominates Itachi'."

"Ahhh, yes that too," she agreed with a smile as she lifted her wine glass to her rosy red lips, "so what's your next move?"

"Already done," Itachi replied with that wicked smirk which meant he topped Sakura this round.

"Can't wait," Sakura replied as she ran her tongue across her lips.

Sadly, Itachi had won, because when they returned home from their long day at work she walked into the bathroom to find a dozen murals all over of Itachi and Sakura having sex. Every position was Itachi dominating her.

"This…is…" Sakura began as she looked at one painting of Itachi doing Sakura doggy style.

"Very tasteful, if I say so myself."

"I'd prefer you not to say anything," Sakura retorted.

.

…

.

**6 months later: **

Sakura laid on the bed with Satan sleeping peacefully on her stomach as she read a new book. A large part of her wished it was never published, and she couldn't even imagine the damage that it would to do their reputation if it was discovered that they were the inspiration.

Itachi walked in from the bathroom, which was still decorated with provocative pictures, and glanced at Sakura.

"What are you reading?" he asked as he ran the towel across his chest. He wished she had taken the initiative to shower with him but, instead, she had her nose in that book for almost ten hours now.

"Playing House with Love and Lust," Sakura responded, turning the page to the next.

"I thought you hated romance books?" Itachi asked walking towards their walk-in closet to get out his sweatpants.

"This one's an exception," Sakura said.

"Whose it by?"

"Jiraiya."

"The landlord?"

"That's the one…it's about a sexy secretary being forced to share an apartment with his powerful and beautiful CEO who had pink hair…they have lots of sex in," Sakura paused as she her brows furrowed, "a lot of interesting positions."

"Hn," Itachi breathed out as he went into the bathroom to hang his towel.

Sakura had lived with him long enough to know the different meanings of different sounding, "hns", the one he just used meant, "really?"

She placed the book down after folding a certain edge of the page and got out of bed to make dinner since it was her turn, "I want to try page 88!" Sakura yelled into the bathroom before walking towards the kitchen.

.

…

.

**6 months later: **

"Honestly, isn't this a bit much?" Sakura asked as she glanced around. She liked fancy restaurants as much as the next person but this was _the_ restaurant.

This was For Rich and Famous People only, otherwise known as La Bella. Sakura glanced at Itachi who had placed a spoon with the $450 soup into his mouth.

"Eat, or I will force feed you," he threatened under his breath.

"How romantic," Sakura replied sarcastically as she forked her salad that was apparently so good for you that it had cost over $300. "Are you sure this isn't poisoned?"

"Positive."

"Really? Because you haven't gotten me back for the bengay in the boxers yet."

"Trust me…I will."

"I know," Sakura replied with a smirk as she placed a fork full of colorful leaves in her mouth.

.

…

.

Desert came and her favorite Mozart song began to play. She glanced over to the piano to find that a large harp had been added during their conversation about medical ethics.

"I love this song," she whispered as a smile spread through her face.

"I know," Itachi said smirking as he broke apart a piece of his chocolate cake.

She turned back to him, "I think this has been one of our most peaceful dates."

"Not for very long," he said as he stood up.

"Hmm?" Sakura asked looking up at him with uncertainty as he went down on one knee before her.

All eyes darted to the legendary lawyer and doctor couple of Konoha. People had been whispering about it all evening.

"Sakura," he began and she interrupted.

"I swear I will knock your jaw in," she threatened too loudly and the entire restaurant went into shock.

"Mmm hmm, and I'll bend you over the table and spank you," he said smugly as he produced a little blue Tiffany box, "you say no, and I will mass produce the video of you and Anko at Shisui birthday party."

"You bastard!" Sakura nearly shouted. The instrumental players skipped a beat in the distraction and all the women in the restaurant had their mouths agape in disbelief.

"So what do you say, marry me?"

"I will make your life a living hell."

"I know," he said giving her one of his rare honest smiles.

"If you cheat on me, I will give you the plague."

"I expect no less."

Sakura stared at him and then smiled back, "yes, you mean-ass, I will marry you."

Normally, everyone in the restaurant would clap. However, this was one of those rare occasions where looks of, "what the fuck?' were more appropriate.

.

…

.

**1 year later: **

"So you finally did it?" Itachi asked as they walked home, his arm draped protectively over her shoulders.

"Mmm hmm, still haven't worked out how to cancel out the HIV, but at least we could stop the HIV from turning to AIDS."

"Good enough for now," her husband replied as they turned the corner.

"Something's on your mind," she stated.

He sighed, she was getting too good at reading him, "I got a letter of selection for the Supreme Court."

"I thought that was only for old geezers."

"If appointed, I'd be the youngest."

"So, do it."

"I'd have to live in Washington for half the year."

"We'd have to live in Washington for half the year," she corrected.

He smiled at his beloved wife gently.

"I wonder if they have a sense of humor, do you think I could dye their robes pink?"

Maybe it would have been better for him to live in Washington alone.

.

…

.

**1 year later: **

Sakura walked into Itachi's office without knocking. He was looking over some documents in deep concentration.

"Hey, what are you up to?" she asked as she brushed her long pink hair behind her ear.

"Shisui is having some difficulties on a case, I'm seeing if I can do anything," he replied as he looked up at his wife who was fidgeting with her fingers. He raised an eyebrow.

She walked around the desk and planted herself on his thigh, "Mmmm, you smell nice."

"Yes, someone switched my cologne with a distinct citrusy perfume," he replied as he leaned back in his leather chair and wrapped his arms around her little waist.

"Hehe, well…uhhh…that someone is kind of sort of…maybe…possible…semi…well you can't be semi…but maybe…can be..." Sakura took a deep breath, "pregnant."

"You are forbidden from having any contact with Anko, no more late nights, and we are getting Satan declawed. Have you gone to a gynecologist?" Itachi didn't skip a beat at his questioning.

Sakura smiled, completely thrilled with his response, "No, not yet."

"I'll set up an appointment for tomorrow and we can go together, is that alright?"

She nodded and he leaned up to place a kiss on her cheek.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too," he responded nuzzling his head in the crevasse of her neck.

They didn't say those three words often, only a handful of times a year…because sometimes feeling it was more important than knowing it.

.

…

.

**14 years later: **

Anko leaned over the chair as she looked at Kyo's drawing pad.

"What are you drawing, cutie?" she asked the seven year old boy with wild unkept pastel pink hair and nearly pitch black eyes.

"The view from here," he responded as he shaded in the stage with his finger. His artistic skill was unparallel.

"Anko, stop harassing my kid," Itachi said as he walked out onto the balcony.

"Was not harassing," the purple haired woman said with a pout as she leaned back in her chair.

"Where's Sakura?" Shisui asked as he grabbed his girlfriend's hand. They decided to never get married or have kids…just live happily ever after. Besides, Anko had reasoned, they could always bug the crap out of Kyo and Michi without the need for all that parental responsibility crap.

"She's backstage with Michi," Itachi responded as he took a seat beside Kyo, "very nice on the shading," he complimented to his son. The boy refused to go anywhere without his sketch pad. His artwork already took up two shelves in their private library, and Itachi was working on having a master woodworker make a beautiful frame for his boy's mother's day gift for Sakura.

Kyo looked up at his father and smiled brightly, "thanks, dad." He lived off the compliments from his parents.

"I'm so excited," Anko said, "this is Michi's first big performance in a real opera theater. I've already threatened five critics to give good reviews."

"That's not necessary," Sakura said appearing behind the red silk curtain as she walked onto the balcony. Her husband stood up and took her hand to lead her to her chair, "our baby is going to blow away the critics with her talent."

"Isn't that the truth," Shisui said smirking.

"Good job on the shading," Sakura told her youngest son as she glanced at his artwork.

He looked up and smiled again, "thanks, mom. Dad said the same thing."

Sakura placed a kiss on the little boy's forehead as she made herself comfortable in her chair.

"Hey, Itachi – do you ever wonder if they're really your kids?" Anko asked as she lifted his legs up onto the marble railing.

Shisui laughed and before Itachi could threaten his cousin, Sakura said, "I sometimes wonder if they're my kids too. Itachi and I have no talent for singing or drawing…"

"I have a theory about that," Shisui said, "you two are such huge geniuses in your own field that your kids can't handle the D.N.A of a doctor and lawyer so they become good at what you suck at."

"How medically profound," Sakura said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well what other thirteen year old sings like Michi? And what seven year old could draw a realistic portrait of the Vatican? The kids are mutated."

"Kyo, you're not listening to your baka-uncle right?" Itachi asked glancing at his son who seemed deaf to the world.

"Nope, uncle's theories stem from his masculine insecurities and desire to over compensate," Kyo replied without looking up from his drawing.

"Good boy," his father smiled as he leaned back in his seat.

"Hey, what the hell are you teaching your son?" Shisui asked defensively.

"The truth," Itachi replied.

"I'll have you know –,"

"Shut up, all of you. Michi's after the overture," Sakura demanded as her hand found Itachi's and their fingers intertwined as the music of the opera began.

.

…

.

**1 month later: **

Itachi walked in on his wife changing into her scrubs.

"Work?" he asked as she pulled the shirt over her head.

"Mmm hmm, they need to do a new spinal procedure and I'm the only one who hasn't killed people in the process."

"By the way, you're pregnant," Itachi said as he leaned up against the wall of their two story mansion.

"Wh-what?"

"The doctor called with the results of your blood work."

"Why the hell did he tell you?" Sakura asked completely shocked by the news. It was something the wife should know first.

"I can be very persuasive."

All of Sakura's anger dissipated as she looked at her husband loving face. He had loved raising Kyo and Michi.

"I hate you so much sometimes."

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that the seaweed wrapper for dinner last night is proof of that."

"Another kid, eh?"

"Mmm hmm."

"I'm getting too old for this…"

"Maybe we'll get a lawyer this time."

"Doctor preferably," she teased as she walked up to him and draped her arms around his shoulders.

"Whatever," he said pressing his lips against hers.

.

…

.

8 and half months later Sakura gave birth to twins, a boy and girl with black silky hair and bright green eyes. 20 years later they'd became legends like their parents.

The girl went on to become the lead crime solving detective in the world, capturing over three hundred criminals in her lifetime. She was most well known for being the one responsible for arresting the president for being a Slavic spy.

The boy went on to be one of the best surgeons known to mankind; he eliminated the need for most medical shots with just one single injection. He became best known for developing a procedure to allow men to become pregnant. It's still arguably the best and worst advancement in society.

Michi became the most in demand opera singer in the world and Kyo's future artistic creations would sell for millions.

They were all raised the basic Sakura and Itachi way. By five years old, all of them were enrolled in boxing and martial arts. By ten they knew all the basic first aid applications and CPR. By twelve they could debate and interrogate like pros. By fifteen they all knew how to make c4 and shot a gun with deadly accuracy. By eighteen they were already renowned geniuses in their own fields.

The most obvious thing they inherited from their parents was their inability to have a normal stable relationship. Years of watching their parent's torture and kiss each other did not do well for their future marriages and (many) divorces.

Itachi and Sakura lived together till the ripe old age of 85 and 90, where they both passed away within days of each other.

Sakura's last words were, "you better not keep me waiting long or else I'll haunt you."

Itachi's last thoughts were, "She was serious about haunting me…"

**The end.**

**

* * *

A/N: **First of all, thank you for reading, and I hope this chapter has lived up to your expectations.

I appreciate all the reviews I have gotten, they have all been a huge and tremendous help in my writing.

Some reviewers have asked for a sequel - maybe one day...but I feel comfortable enough with this story to end it here. :)

I wish you all the best, and thank you again!

Edited: CattyFr caught a mistake of mine. Thank you.


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